


Love is For Fools Who Fall Behind

by orphan_account



Series: Shimmer [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Body Dysphoria, Drug-Induced Sex, Dubious Consent, Human Trafficking, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Non-Consensual Bondage, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Omega Verse, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Hatred, Sex Toys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-06 08:46:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8743219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Keith's mother always told him that an omega couldn't afford to trust anyone. Keith didn't listen and now his worst nightmare is being realized. In a world where omegas have no rights and can be sold to the highest bidder Keith is nothing more than a pretty birthday present for Lance and Shiro, the alpha princes of the McClain crime family.(Shklance Week: Nightmare)





	1. So You Stole My World

**Author's Note:**

> Not a happy story. At all. AT. ALL.

“You sure about this? Untouched?” The man Thace was talking to asked, expression severe. Keith didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but he was leaning strongly towards drugs and wanted to sigh his frustration. His uncle had a habit and it was going to get him, and them, in trouble one day.

Why couldn’t he just get drunk like a respectable asshole?

He hadn’t expected whatever deal Thace wanted him to sit in to take this long and he was already tired of it. The only upside was the free drinks though he was starting to wonder what was in them. Two drinks in and his head was already pounding.

Thace nodded. “Completely.”

The man hummed then inclined his head towards one of the two suited goon-types who’d come into the room with him. A briefcase was brought forward, a cliche if ever there was one, and was set down on the table between them. The noise it made when it hit the glass surface was oddly loud, making Keith wince.

He rubbed at his temples and tried to keep following the conversation but the words started to get muddled, dropping in and out. He shook his head, trying to clear out the muffled sounds and dispel the sudden heaviness that seemed to come with it. He regretted it almost immediately when everything started tilting and going hazy. He closed his eyes for a moment, pressing the heel of his hands into his eyes.

“You alright kid?” Thace asked, voice a strange echo in his brain. Keith blinked, trying to clear the blur from his eyes and make his eyes focus on his uncle but the world was spinning dangerously. “Keith?”

A heavy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach, a tight panicky twist in his gut. Something was wrong. He needed to ...needed to be. Somewhere else. Had to get up and out of here.

He lurched to his feet or tried to anyway. He swayed, or maybe the world swayed, and the glass in his hand slipped from his fingers, shattering on the stone floor. He almost followed it, legs buckling, but he was grabbed and hauled up for a moment and then he was placed on something soft.

His hands were maneuvered in front of him and held together as something was wrapped around them; he kicked out, met something hard but yielding, and tried to wrench his hand away. His heart was beating hard and his ears were ringing as he kicked again and again, swearing and snarling, animal brain rising to the forefront to try and push away the fog around his brain.

A sharp blow to his face, hard enough to snap his head back, made the world go black for a moment. Another blow, this one to the stomach, made his gag and spit as all the air was driven from him and then he was on his back with something heavy pressing down between his shoulder blades.

Something sharp pricked the back of his neck.  

He heard his ‘uncle’ sigh. “Sorry kid.”

And that was when he knew he’d made a mistake.

Keith didn’t often make mistakes. It wasn’t a matter of being conceited or thinking he was above fuck ups because that wasn’t the case at all. It was, rather, that he couldn’t afford to make mistakes. He hadn’t been born in a place or with a secondary gender that allowed him to mess up or let his guard down for even a moment. His mother had impressed the importance of always being aware and never really trusting anyone and, years after her death, that was a lesson he continued to take to heart. She had known better than most what it was to be a known, but unregistered, omega in Arus City and she hadn’t wanted that for him.

_Don’t register, don’t be found out, don’t let anyone ever claim you, and if those aren’t possible better to be dead than one of the dead eye omegas._

Arus City wasn’t a kind place even at the best of times, little more than a dead end for anyone unlucky enough to end up there. Corrupt cops, corrupt officials, gangs, violence, drugs, prostitution...Arus City had it all and no one was all that inclined to do anything about it. And why would anyone; the affairs of the hopeless poor weren’t worth the attention of those in power and those with power were more than happy sitting in their Uptown towers and watching the rest scramble for scraps.

That’s how it looked to Keith anyway.

If you were born there you probably died there without much fanfare after just barely scraping out a piss-poor backbreaking existence, and that was the best case scenario. Worst case you fell in with a gang and ended up in any number of shit situations. If you just sort of fell in it was likely you were already circling the drain and Arus City was just the place shit tended to settle at.

It was worse if you were an omega. The already limited options became that much more limited in a place like Arus City, where everybody was willing to use somebody else to get ahead. There were, Keith knew, always people who lacked the status to own an omega of their own who were willing to pay for a night or two and there were plenty of people willing to make that happen, with or without the omega’s consent. It meant ending up the bitch of some gang or under the thumb of some pimp, full of heat inducing drugs, wandering the streets with glassy vacant eyes.

The only protection was registration and registration meant ending up in an omega school, trained to be a slightly higher class whore for some rich alpha’s harem. It meant enforced breeding and a life in chains.

So he was careful. Had been since he’d presented. His mother had been an omega and, while she’d died when he was young, he’d known what to do. She drilled it into him as soon as he was old enough to understand, taught him how to survive like how she wished someone had taught her. Scent dampening soaps and colognes, illegal suppressants that kept him out of heat (and, coincidentally, killed his sense of smell, knocked out his ‘instincts’, and had put an end to his sex drive before it had even really developed.) When she’d died things had gotten difficult because he’d been shuttled off to an orphanage and hadn’t been sure what he was going to do but he’d managed for a year or so after presenting. No one knew except a few friends of his mother who he was sure wouldn’t sell him out.

But buying what he needed took money and a fourteen year old orphan wasn’t exactly rolling in that. He’d been running through the last of his mother’s favors when Thace had shown up, calling himself his uncle and promising to do right by him.

Keith knew he wasn’t an uncle, unless uncle was now a codeword for ‘Guy who used to pay to fuck his mother’. Which, he supposed, it was, in which case Keith had a lot of uncles. He wasn’t exactly caretaker of the year, not even sort of kind of close to that. Hell, the guy hadn’t even actually taken him out of the orphanage so much as visited regularly and slipped Keith what he needed to keep pretending to be a beta in a world where being an omega meant being someone’s fuck doll.

Thace did, on occasion, have Keith do less than savory things to help out but it wasn’t as if he’d been above stealing or beating someone up to keep food on the table before Thace had asked him to. That was basically how he’d been affording things before so what was the harm in doing it on someone else's command? Thace never tried to make him sell his ass or suck anyone off so, in the grand scheme of things, Keith figured he didn’t have much reason to complain.  

So when he’d come back to the orphanage after school to find Thace waiting to ask him to come help with a job he’d agreed easily enough. It wasn’t the first one he’d do for Thace or the last and, while he prefered to not work on school nights, he did owe Thace a lot. Especially lately; Keith’s suppressant supplier had vanished but Thace had stepped in, keeping him supplied without even asking for the money back.

And yeah, Keith had been a little wary of the stuff because instead of the milky white he was used to the drugs Thace brought were a sickly yellow. He’d only had a bad reaction once but seizing and vomiting blood once had let enough of an impression to make him want to be cautious about what he took. But he trusted Thace and, so far, the new yellow suppressants hadn’t had any side effects and Keith had been able to save up more money.

Beyond that Thace kept him in the orphanage. The Matron could have bounced him when he was sixteen, or when a relative had shown up, but Thace slipped her money every month and so she begrudgingly let Keith keep a small closet sized room all to himself and continued to feed him. All of that, and the steady suppressant supply, let Keith focus on school instead of worrying about someone finding out he was an omega.

School was going to be what got him out of Downtown Arus. He rode the rickety train up to Midtown every morning, dealt with the disgusted stares of the slightly less bad off, did what he needed to do, and in a few short months he’d have a workpass for Midtown or Uptown. A workpass meant a better job and conditions away from the trash and sludge filled gutters and rotted fish scented air of Downtown. It meant he’d have more money for better suppressants and maybe even gland patches. It meant hiding what he was better.

Anything that helped him achieve that goal was appreciated and so helping Thace out with a job was a no brainer.

Except it had been a little strange. For one Thace had made him change out of his school uniform before they could leave the orphanage and, after Keith had down that and taken his vial of suppressant for the day, he’d come downstairs to find Thace and the Matron talking which was...unusual. Thace gave her money at the beginning of the month and they otherwise ignored each other, save the woman’s occasional hard looks and sharp words. She didn’t care for either of them, just the extra money, and had made no secret of the fact she thought Thace was fucking him.

It wouldn’t have been that crazy, possible relation and Keith’s dead sex drive aside. Lots of the older orphanage kids had ‘benefactors’ in Uptown or Midtown, married men or women with some power to their name who wanted to keep something young and fresh to the side and out of sight. Finding a cute orphan, someone who thought paying for their school and giving them nice things on occasion was worthy of loyalty, filled that niche.

As a general rule Keith tried to stay away from the matron. He hated how she look at all of them when she thought they wouldn’t notice, as if they were meat in a market and she was the butcher trying to assess what they were worth.

He knew for a fact she sold newly presented omegas off to the gangs without so much as a twitch of guilt. To the contrary she had a doctor from Uptown come down a few times a year to exam them all under the guise of being kind and wanting them to have the medical care usually denied downtowners. It was good for her image but Keith knew that really hoping one of them might turn out to be an omega on the cusp of presenting or in hiding because then they’d actually worth something. As much as she liked Thace’s money, Keith had no doubt she'd do the same to him if she knew the truth.

Hell, she thought he was a beta and there had been a few times, before Thace had shown up, where she’d tries to nudge him into fucking some of the clients for her side business. She offered to split the money, to get him a nicer room, to let him have better food like the the other kids she whored out but even if Keith had been interested he wouldn’t have gone along with it. He didn’t dare put himself in a position where someone might be able to tell he wasn’t a beta and sex? Sex would have done just that.

It was actually the way she’d been looking at him, curious and searching, that had made him positive he’d rather be out with Thace on a school night than back at the orphanage with her. Her rheumy green eyes had been full of questions and almost wonder, as if she was noticing him for the first time, and it had made his skin crawl. He didn’t know what she was seeing when she looked at him and he didn’t want to know.

He had thought it weird that Thace handed her a thick envelope of what had to be cash before they’d headed off, it was the middle of the month and Keith knew Thace had already paid, but he didn’t ask about it. Maybe she wanted more money, maybe Thace was playing middle man for her other business. It could have been any number of things and, so long as he got to keep his tiny room and access to breakfast and dinner, it was none of Keith’s concern. He minded his business and hoped others would do the same.  

They’d taken the train to one of McClain’s clubs, one of the ‘nicer’ Uptown spots in Arus City, but his uncle hadn’t taken a second look at the scantily clad women on the pole or walking the floor. They’d been lead to a small back room and left alone for a bit, during which his uncle had poured them both drinks but had been too busy pacing and frowning down at his phone to drink his own.

With anyone else Keith would have been on edge, would have been paranoid, but not with Thace. He trusted the older man.

And there was his mistake.

His mother had always *always* said don’t trust anyone but he had and it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

“Hey,” Thace, or at least he thought it was Thace but it was hard to tell because it was like listening to people talk while underwater or through a thick wall. “Don’t be so rough with him.”

He couldn’t see, couldn’t feel his body anymore, and knew he was fading fast. He tried to push back against it, to command himself to move. Tried to pull up anger and betrayal and fear, because he knew what happened to unregistered omegas in situations like this and he wasn’t about to let that be his fucking fate.

He’d rather die.

Someone made a placating noise. “Don’t worry Thace, the boss doesn’t want some rough upped omega so we’ll be taking good care of the kid. He’ll be living the high life in no time. You can consider your debt cleared and take that payment guilt free.”

“Yeah.” A beat and then he felt like someone was next to him. “Look ki-Keith. You’re going to hate me when you wake up and that’s fair but a few years from now you’ll be out of this shithole, bonded to some rich jerk, have a few brats, and you won’t remember not being happy. You might even thank me. I mean...you had to know you couldn’t hide forever. This school thing...it wouldn’t have worked. At least this way you’ll be somewhere cushy.”

If he could have Keith would have spat in the man’s face and told him to take his rationalizing bullshit somewhere else. But all he could do was fall deeper, like sinking to the bottom of a dark cool lake, and hate that Thace was probably right.

\----

He woke up all at once, a furious growl rising up in his throat as his head whipped around and tried to understand what was going on. He was lying down, curled in on himself and while he was still, thankfully, clothed wherever he was was cold as hell. And shaking; there was a rattling sound coming from all around him. And dark, pitch black. He pushed himself up and started to uncurl, muscles tensing and eyes squinting in the darkness.

His feet hit something; a chill bit through his socks. He pressed against whatever it was, used his feet to feel around and his heart sank as he realized that it was metal bars, spaced just far enough apart  he could push his foot up to his ankle out. He reached with his hand and felt more of the same, as well as a metal slab under the thin blanket he was on and another metal slab above his head.

He was in a fucking cage.

“Shhh.” Someone hissed to the right. “He’ll hear you!”

“Who are you?” Keith demanded as he shifted towards the sound as best he could with the limited amount of space he had; the cage wasn’t even tall enough to sit up in properly. “Where are we?”

His eyes were adjusting frustratingly slow but, when he crawled to the edge of his cage he found it was a little lighter there. He immediately wished he hadn’t been able to see anything at all. They were in the back of what looked like a truck or shipping container, metal siding and wide, pull up door at the far end. The cage he was in was one of ten, stacked two high and in rows of five. All looked occupied, though he was the only person not huddled in a corner.

The ‘He’ whoever had told him to be quiet seemed to be a man, uncaged, tucked over by the door, dozing under a blanket. He was big, really big, with bulging muscles and dark hair. Keith growled again and slammed his hand against the front of his cage; the clattering sound was loud and echoed painfully in the enclosed space.

Whimpers, soft and weak and disgustingly ‘omega’ come from all around him just as the man jumped to awareness.

“Who-”

“Let me the fuck out of here!” Keith shouted, smacking the cage door again as fear and rage combined then bubbled over. He’d always had a temper, a bad one, and not nearly as much control over it as he should have.

The man’s eyes, gleaming amber, zeroed in on him. “Shut the fuck up before I shut you up.”

“Try it.” Keith hissed, teeth bared. The other omegas around him (he knew they had to be even if he couldn't scent them. Who else but omegas would be forced into cages like this?) whimpered and shuffled around in the cages, refusing to so much as look towards him. “You can’t do this! This is-”

The man took a wobbling step towards him, the swaying of the truck making him unsteady, hand twitching towards towards his waist. “I said shut the fuck up!” He put power into his voice and Keith could feel it like a heavy hand trying to force him down. He shook his head, trying to will it away (He shouldn’t be affected by an alpha’s voice. His suppressants...even if he’d been out a while there was no way it had been long enough for the effects to wear off) and forced his head to stay up, eyes burning into the man.

“Where are you taking me? What is-”

The screech of brakes and a hard jerk that nearly sent Keith face first into the bars cut him off. The man almost fell but managed to catch himself on the wall and, with an ugly glare at Keith, he hurried over to the door. Keith shouted after him, kept banging on his cage, demanding answers.

The door rose up, letting blinding light in. There were more people, shadowed outlines against the bright light, and one of them addressed the man.

“Sendak, what the hell is all that shouting? I told you to keep the bitches quiet.”

A furious flush rose up over Keith’s face. “Hey! Let us out of here, you can’t just-”

“Just shut up!” Someone shouted shrilly; it was one of the other omegas. Keith turned, trying to figure out which one, but all backs were turned to him. A few were shaking, others crying, and it make Keith’s fury spike even higher.

“Are you serious? You know what’s happening right? There’s only one reason to snatch omegas!”

A small redhead turned to look at him, big green eyes wet. There was a dark bruise forming over his cheekbone. “Please just be quiet. You’ll get us in trouble.”

Keith snarled. “We’re already in trouble you idiots.”

“You’re coming first.” The man, Sendak, declared. He crossed to Keith’s cage with speed that didn’t match his huge body and, flashing him an ugly smile that showed off his sharp alpha teeth, he undid the lock on the outside of Keith’s cage.

Keith pushed himself low, tense and ready to strike and as soon as the door was swinging open and a meaty hand was going for his neck he struck. He lashed out with nails and teeth, had blood on his tongue and across his hands in short order. Sendak let out an alarmed cry as Keith practically climbed his body and tried to jam a thumb into his eyes.

Stupid arrogant alpha fuckhead. He must had figured Keith was all talk, that he’d wilt when it came time to fight, but Keith had never once in his life backed down.

He raked his nails over Sendak’s eyes and bite down on his neck, trying to get to his throat, barely feeling meaty hands gripping his hair and trying to pry him loose.

In the end someone else, one of the others, yanked him down and slammed him against the floor hard enough to make his vision swim and breath leave him in one great whoosh. He was dazed and it was only for a moment but that was all it took for Sendak to drop down on him, crushing him under his superior weight, and wrap a hand around his throat. He squeezed and pushed, eyes bright with hatred, and Keith thrashed flailed, beat his heels against the ground as he tried to squirm free.

“No marks. That one already has a buyer.” Someone said. Keith couldn’t tell who because everything was spinning and going gray again. He clawed at Sendak’s hands and wrists and gagged as his lungs started to burn. “Here, I’ve got a sedative.”

He felt the prick and something cool being pushed under his skin. He snarled again but, almost instantly, his body started to feel heavy; his fingers were lead and keeping them up to try to fight Sendak off was impossible.

He went limp.

The hand around his throat let up.

The last thing he saw was another omega, head down, silently climbing out of it’s cage and then shuffling wordlessly to be helped out of the truck.  
\----  
  
When he came to again it was to a scene out of the horror stories he saw on the news about unregistered omegas being trafficked. Bound to what looked like a examination table from a doctor’s, not that Keith had been to one in years because doctors meant exam and exams meant being found out and being found out meant being registered or sold off, by thick heavy straps over his chest and arms, feet in stirrups and legs spread wide with more straps around his thighs and ankles, mouth forced open by what felt like a metal ring when he prodded it with his tongue, and something heavy around his neck that kept him from doing little more than turning his head from side to side. His clothes were gone, letting the chill of the room permeate his skin.

The room was dim and it took time for his eyes to adjust but once they had what he found only made things worse. It was an all white room, featureless save a shut door directly in front of him that allowed the barest bit of light to filter in from underneath, what looked like a metal cart covered with a white sheet, and large mirror that took up almost the entirety of the wall to his left and let him get a good look at himself that he probably could have done without. It let him see that the thing around his neck was some sort of collar, connected somehow to the table, that he had an ugly bruise on one cheek, and that he looked like some pathetic tiny shivering animal with drool leaking down it's chin, waiting to have it's head bashed in.

Except he was pretty sure having his head bashed in would have been preferable to whatever was coming next and he sure as fuck wasn't just going to wait for anything.

He was wiggling and pushing against his bindings, desperate to find even the smallest hint of a gap he could get out from under or something he could get close enough to his hands to in order to tear at or maybe just tip the damn table over and hopefully injure himself enough to be undesirable when the door swung open. A light came on overhead, temporarily blinding him, and what sounded like heels clicked against the tiled floor.

"This is it? How old is this one?" A female voice asked. "Looks young."

"The paperwork says 17." Another female, this one sounding very bored, the owner of the heels probably, said. He felt a presence to his side and tried to pull away from it but there was no where to go as sharply tipped nails gripped his chin and forced his head to the side. Nails scratched over his scalp then his hair was tugged hard enough to make his skin prickle with pain. "Can you do anything about this?"

"His hair?"

The spots cleared from his eyes to find a tall statuesque dark haired woman standing over him, dark red tinted mouth pulled down into a frown. She was dark skinned, hair arranged in flowing curls pinned to one side with a jeweled clip, and her eyes were like twin chips of ice, such a pale blue they were nearly colorless. She was dressed nicely, a blouse that looked like it cost more than the monthly rent on his room and black slacks; a delicate looking necklace hung from her neck and he could feel rings digging into his skin.

He tried to yank his head away but her grip tightened to the point of pain and kept him in place in a show of impressive strength. He grunted and swore but it all came out as wet gurgling.  

"Naturally. What is this, a mullet? Cut it even and have it grown into a more acceptable style, And all of this...muscle tone. It's unseemly. I won't have a McClain Family omega looking like some sort of...thug."

He started at 'McClain Family'. He knew who the McClains were, of course, they ran most of Arus City. They'd been headed by some big shot alpha, The King, with a reputation for not just taking out competition but ruthlessly destroying it, for longer than Keith (or his ‘uncle’) had been alive.  An image of a fat pampered alpha old enough to be his grandfather touching him formed in his mind and he nearly gagged.

"This isn't much I can do, no. The hormones will have some effect but you aren't giving me much time to work with. It's hardly enough time to break in a properly trained omega let alone one who was unregistered. I doubt it knows the first thing about presenting properly or how to service a knot."

  
Keith went rigid, eyes darting to the side to try and find the source of the other voice.

The bored woman sighed as if disappointed then nodded. She dropped his face, frowning down at her hand, then turned away from him. "I understand Hagger. Do what you can with the time you have and, if needed, we'll have a tutor come in after the ceremony."

Free of her grip he was able to turn to see a woman, tall with long grayish-white hair, narrow amber eyes, and a long dark labcoat on, standing over the covered cart. When she noticed Keith's attention she smiled almost genially (and yet he shivered as a chill washed over him) as she removed the sheet to expose a display of gleaming metal items Keith couldn't begin to name and a bunch of stuff that made it look like one of the porn magazines the alphas at the orphanage hid under their mattresses had thrown up on the cart. Keith groaned, heels pressing against the stirrups as he started thrashing around again.

"I'll return in a few days. I hope all of that...fuss will at least be handled." The woman sighed as she walked over to the door to let herself out but paused. "Do remind Haxus that he's expected at the ceremony. I won't accept being lost in work as an excuse this time."

The other woman nodded and waved a hand dismissively as she picked up a syringe from the cart. "Of course."

The door whispered shut behind the woman, leaving the two of them alone. The woman rounded the table, looking utterly unconcerned with Keith's frantic attempts to get away and gripped him by one of his thighs. "This is a cocktail of omega hormones and stimulants. It might burn some but that's normal."

She sounded like someone's aunt soothing a child or  maybe someone talking to a rabid animal, Keith wasn't sure which was worse, all kindness and understanding.

The needle bit into his thigh and he shouted in protest then shouted again as a hot trickling feeling spread under his skin. He twisted around more and howled, feet beating against the stirrups but the woman simply withdrew the needle and, smiling again, patted his leg sympathetically. Keith glared and hoped the woman could see that he was, without a doubt, going to kill her the minute he got loose.

And he was going to get loose.

"It becomes less jarring with time. Now, normally I would allow you more time to let that circulate and make sure you're lubricating properly but we are in a time crunch." She sighed mournfully. "So we'll just have to get right to work I'm afraid. One can't simply condition an omega overnight, you understand, but people seem to expect miracles from me."

She was back at the cart, a dildo with a visible knot at the base in one hand. Keith's stomach dropped and, in spite of the burn spreading through his body, he felt cold. In the woman's other hand was a bottle; the lid was flipped off and the bottle tipped, allowing clear liquid to drip over the dildo. "If you were a proper registered omega you'd already know all about knots and that you aren't supposed to orgasm without one and it would save so much time but there's no helping it. We'll have to start from scratch."

Keith strained against his bonds harder.


	2. Let Me Be Broken Open

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graphic medical exams and sexual torture and attempts to fuck with Keith's head.

When he looked back on it Keith was sure the first day was the worst. Not because of what happened, there was much worse to come, but because he wasn’t prepared for it and how could he be. Kidnapped, or sold off rather, and tied down yes, but he hadn’t really had any idea what was coming or what they were going to be doing to him.   


How they intended to change him.   


It started with Dr. Haggar, who spoke to him like Keith wasn’t gagged and being held captive, examining him thoroughly. First poking into his mouth, touching and tapping teeth while clucking about cavities, poking at his gums and under his tongue before making notes on a clipboard. Next she yanked his hair, taking a few strands with him to drop into a small plastic baggy, poked and prodded all the scars he’d accumulated over the years while shaking her head and muttering about omegas with flawed skin, and tweaked his nipples. Keith gasped behind his gag, back arching as a shock went through his body. 

“Unusual sensitivity and a lack of tissue development. It’s possible you won’t develop until you’re pregnant but...you have been on suppressants since presentation according to your guardian? Unfortunate. This things you omegas do to yourselves and for what? To deny the natural order of things?” The woman said as she discarded her gloves and picked up a new set. “Normally it would take weeks for them to work out of your system but I understand your guardian has been weaning you down, giving you weaker and weaker doses for some time. They should be just about out of your system.” 

Keith let out a startled squawk. Thace has been doing what?! But...he closed his eyes, thinking about the odd coloring of the suppressants Thace had been bringing him. Thinking about how his supplier for the past 2 years had just upped and vanished on him without a word, no hint to what had actually happened to him. Had Thace had a hand in that? 

How long...how long had he been planning this?  

Keith’s stomach turned, betrayal heavy like stones in his gut. How long had Thace been looking him in the face and planning to sell him out? How hadn’t he seen it or realized or...felt something? Shouldn’t he have known something was wrong? Or...maybe he had. Little things, like being tired and slower to wake up. His skin being more sensitive; he’d felt so uncomfortable in his school uniform lately, like it wasn’t fitting right. And his fingers and toes had been so cold lately but-

“We’ll check your glands next. I have something that should stimulate them after so long of being dried out.” 

She pushed his head to the side and touched the scent glands behind his ear and on his throat and wrists in turn. Something wet and cool that left his skin tingling was rubbed over them and he shuddered in revulsion. Without suppressants in his system like they should have been his scent glands were sensitive, more so than he could ever recall them being, and the tingling was warm, almost pleasant. He found himself clenching his hands painfully to keep from squirming and trying to shout and growl.   


It was pointless, just pathetic wet noises pushed out of his mouth along with thick ropes of drool, but not protesting would have been worse. It would have been like he was doing nothing at all and accepting that he was screwed, which was something he couldn’t do.   


He wasn’t sure how he was going to get out yet but he was and then there was going to be hell to pay. He’d never killed anyone before, though a few people had enjoyed long stints in the hospital by his hands, but he was very willing to change that now.   


The doctor moved on, smirking at him darkly as her hands slid down his chest before pressing down on his stomach. “You’ll need an ultrasound, to check to ensure your reproductive organs haven’t been harmed by suppressant use. You aren’t of much use if you can’t carry.” 

His breathing caught, stuttered, and an embarrassed flush crawled over his skin. That wasn’t true, he knew it wasn’t true even if that was how other people, most people, thought of omegas. 

She moved on, touching and then holding his hips while eyeing him carefully. “Very narrow hip width, not good for pregnancy, but the hormone treatment should help them spread a little. I’ll add calcium and vitamin D to your diet.”  

Haggar changed her gloves again then picked up a...something. It was clear plastic and like a bird's beak on one end. She dribbled lubricant on it then stepped between his eyes, eyeing him dispassionately. 

“I’ll begin the internal exam now. You will no doubt find it easier if you stay still.”

Alarm flared in his chest and then exploded into panic at the first cold touch against his anus. He pushed down against the stirrups again, shaking his head back and forth violently and trying to scream, to get away, to do anything at all to stop her. All he succeeded in doing was choking himself and needing to turn his head to one side so he could try to clear his throat with hacking coughs. Dr. Haggar didn’t seem at all bothered or to even really noticed, pushing the thing in deeper, until he felt something nudging against his skin. The tool sat inside of him, cool and uncomfortable but not painful, for a moment and then it began to spread inside of him. It burned some but it opened up slowly, steadily, and still didn’t hurt exactly.

Dr. Haggar bent down, eyes thoughtful and then something else was inside of him, sweeping over his insides. His eyes widened as he watched, unable to look away as the Dr. Haggar dropped a long handled qtip into a plastic baggy. The next thing she pushed into him was rough, scraped against sensitive flesh, and that was bad but the way she was watching was worse, narrow eyes and careful, calculating. He was exposed, open and clenching around the spreader reflexively, and it was...there weren’t words. 

He inhaled sharply when fingers joined the tool. He tried to thrash, to shrink away, to do anything to get away from the invasion but his frantic actions barely moved his body or garnered him so much as a glance from the older woman.   


Everything was done with a cold and, occasionally, downright disappointed look as the woman mumbled under her breath, too soft for Keith to really pick it up. There wasn't anything sexual about it, in fact it was without a doubt the most embarrassed and uncomfortable he'd ever been. It was one thing to be kept like this but quite another to be looked over and picked at, everything cataloged, like he was some kind of science project or an ‘It’ and not a person.   


It was humiliating and terrible and he hated every moment of it and yet, as fingers probed him what could only be described as rudely, Keith was mortified to find he was getting hard and starting to feel warm in spite of the chill in the room.   


Worse than all of that he was getting wet.   


He wanted to hide it, to close his legs or throw his hands down there so the shameful reaction couldn't be seen but all he could do was lie there and let things continue. He didn't know why it was happening; nothing that had happened had felt that good, not even the brief touches to his scent glands and the loathsome warmth that had followed yet there was no denying that he felt the flutter of arousal in his gut and everything that came with it.   


The dampness inside of him was unfamiliar, a slow wet tickle, because his suppressants made it nearly impossible for him to get wet but he knew it for what it had to be. He’d jerked off a few times, just to see what it was all about, but he’d always been dry there. Admittedly he’d never...tried touching himself back there, didn’t see the point in it, but this was really what was going to make that part of him work? 

Was this really turning him on? Some weird sick fuck giving him what seemed to amount to an invasive check up was what got him hard? Why? Wasn't it embarrassing enough to be seen like this without adding to the situation?   


The fingers withdrew only to slip further back to prod the scent gland just behind his asshole. Keith shut his eyes tight but couldn’t stop his body from jerking up at the contact. It was another spot he didn’t allow himself to touch or pay attention to; it didn’t feel good exactly, the doctor was pushing too hard for that, but it still managed to steal his breath and make his eyes water. The hot flush over his skin got worse and he felt sweat beading on his forehead.   


Why was his body doing this?   


The fingers went away and the thing inside of him was closed and slowly pulled loose. He allowed himself to feel a moment of relief once it was gone even though the feeling of being held open and the press of cool plastic inside of him lingered.   


“Displaying an aroused state. I wasn’t expecting that, even with the sensitizing cream applied to your glands, but it is good news. Your drug useage might not have done any damage after all.” 

Keith couldn't hold back an angry noise of protest even as more heat raced up his face. It didn’t matter if it was true; it wasn’t his doing and he didn’t know why it was happening and the way Dr. Haggar said it made it sound like it was because he was enjoying it, not because his body was acting wildly out of control.     


She frowned at him disapprovingly. “No need to be embarrassed. You are, after all, an omega. Hypersexuality and sensitivity is very much a part of your genetic makeup and stimulation to certain areas, in particular the anus and scent glands, is bound to cause such a reaction. If you hadn’t been using those hormone suppressants you no doubt would have given in to the urge to breed long before now; such is an omega’s purpose in life.”

“You are meant to be aroused easily, there’s no point in trying to deny that.”   


Keith opened his eyes to glare at the woman, trying to silently communicate all the ‘fuck you’s’ raging in his head but Dr. Haggar’s attention was back on the cart and the objects spread out there.   


“I think something smaller that I originally planned will be in order for you.” Haggar said as she picked up a different dildo, this one a sterile white and both thinner, no wider than three of the doctor’s fingers, and shorter than the one that had already been lubed up. It still had a knot towards the end like the larger one. “You'll want to breathe in and then exhale when you feel it enter. It will be easier for you that way.”   


Keith shook his head, gurgling furiously as the doctor rounded the cart to stand between his legs again. A hand touched his leg, a mockery of a soothing gesture and then the blunt head of the dildo was pushing against, into, him. He tried to bare down on it to stop it from happening but the doctor wasn’t deterred and bit by awful bit it was pressed in until the flared knot was forcing him open to accept it. He cried out as his hole stretched wider to accommodate; It burned a lot, in a different way that the plastic spreader had, and there was uncomfortable pressure in his stomach he couldn’t make sense of.  Even though he knew logically that it wasn’t that big he was sure he was going to tear open as it was forced deeper into him.   


His erection didn’t wilt at all. If anything it got harder, pulsing as precum beaded at the tip, and a jolt of something electric ran up his spine as the knot rubbed against sensitive nerves.   


The doctor pushed until the knot was snug inside of him and the flared base rested against his ass. He was panting and sweating hard, as if he’d been running, and his skin felt like it was on fire. Every movement on the table made his breathing hitch and his stomach clench. His entrance tightened around the more narrow part of the dildo below the knot and, he learned when he tried again to force it out, effectively locking it in place. The doctor stepped back to look him over then nodded and pulled off her gloves with loud snaps.   


“It is important you learn to associate pleasure with an alpha’s knot and alpha pheromones as well as become used to the feeling. It won’t be any good to have you crying the first time you're with your alphas.”   


Keith’s eyes were burning as well but he forced himself to blink away the wetness and continue to glare at the woman. He couldn’t stop himself from clenching around the invader and that only made it worse because more electric sparks crept up his spine as it pressed against him in certain places.   


“You seem to be in decent enough health, considering. A little scarred up, nothing to do about it I’m afraid,  but we’ll see about some treatments to soften and improve your skin. We'll call in a dentist and you'll have to be waxed before the ceremony but the hormones should make some of that unsightly hair growth cease. Genitals are a touch large for an omega but hormones may change that as well.” The doctor pressed a finger to the tip of his cock, seemingly unmoved by the way Keith’s hips jerked at the contact.   


Keith, on the other hand, was very moved and grunted as his body tightened up unconsciously. The dildo shifted a little, the tip pressing against him just so and   


He shouted in surprise, body jerking hard and clamping down on the toy which just made it rub into him harder. He gasped wetly, tears welling up again as his cock throbbed and more precum dribbled free.   


He needed to stay still. To stay still and relax and not...not any of this.   


Fuck, what was wrong with him?   


The doctor hummed then patted his flank like someone might do to a dog. “I think this will be enough for now. I’ll have someone come by soon to administer another injection and get some food into you. Regular feedings, every four hours, working up to double helpings if we can. Ms. McClain will appreciate a softer look to you, I’m sure.”   


Keith tried to glare at the doctor as she turned to leave through the wet haze over his eyes but, once he was alone in the dark again, he almost wished the woman would come back. Being alone with his traitor body and the heat starting to bubble inside of him seemed much worse.   
\---

“These knotting aids are safe to wear for extended periods so for the time being you’ll wear it at all times.” Haggar informed him as another needle was pushed into the meat of his thigh. “If you need to use the bathroom ask one of the guards to let you free. The hormone shots will have you in an extreme state of arousal so you will be free to relieve yourself as needed.”  

Keith wasn’t sure how much later it was, except that he’d had another shot and been forced to eat and drink before Haggar returned. Some strange harness was pulled up his legs, straps fixed around and over the base of the plug she’d put in him to replace the dildo and around his cock, fitting tightly where they crossed his back, digging in around his nipples, and then tight around his shoulders. The harness had a zipper along the back and, once it was one him, a small padlock locked the zipper closed. 

He was hauled to his feet, barely able to stand on his own, and forced to walk. He was woozy, probably from whatever had made his water taste like sour metal, and his brain was too fogged over for thoughts. He wanted to try and get away, took two steps away from the guard holding him but then his knees buckled and the world dimmed around him. 

He wasn’t entirely sure how he eventually ended up on a bed; he might had walked or been carried but, with whatever was in those shots and maybe in the food affecting his thinking, it was impossible to be sure. He wasn’t even sure how long he was in the bed, a cot really, with a think mattress, scratchy sheets, and threadbare blanket tossed over him, when he finally got it together enough to look around. 

He wasn’t alone. Other omegas, the ones from the truck probably, were also on beds. Some under blankets, huddled down and hiding away, and some on top. He saw they were all in similar harness systems, males and females alike. There was crying from all corners of the room, which was understandable, and a wet musty smell lingered in the air, burning his nose. 

But there wasn’t just that. On one of the beds, under a blanket, one of the omegas was squirming around and making soft huffing noises. Their hips were moving, pushing back and forth. 

Keith looked away, focusing on himself. He was half hard and, once again, damp between his legs. The plug inside of him was pressing into those same sensitive spots the dildo had, thick and shifting just inside of his rim. There was a cuff around his ankle that attached to a long length of chain that looped around the bottom of his cot. 

He moved the cuff around, eyes narrowing as he considered the keyhole. He’d picked a few locks in his time. He wasn’t great at it but he was sure he could get it eventually. He just needed tools. 

The next time he went back to the room, and he knew there would be a next time, he’d get something. He could wait until then. 

\---   
It was impossible to keep track of time or even guess how many days were going by. At first he thought he could keep track by the shots he was given but in the end there were so many different ones there was no hope of keeping up with which was which and how often he got them.

And trying to steal something to force the lock on his cuff was a pipedream. He was kept strapped down and when he wasn’t someone was always there, watching him. He was kept too weak to fight back like he wanted and the drugs...   
  
He knew one shot was to mess with his head, make him dizzy and confused. That one they always gave him before the lessons or before Dr. Haggar would drone on and on, voice a penetrating echo in his brain that would linger even when he was alone again, about proper omega behavior, appearance, or training. When he was in deep, down in the clinging heavy cotton that swaddled his brain after that shot, all he could hear was the expectations and the insistence that they were helping him, teaching him how he should be, fixing all the damage he’d done to himself.   
  
One was to make it so he couldn't fight back when they came to clean him up or feed him or take him to the bathroom or, during one strange encounter he wasn't sure was real or a dream, to measure him. He hated the way his body felt, heavy and numb, unwilling to listen to him at all, and the way they carried and manipulated his body around like he was some sort of doll.      
  
One that was supposedly vitamins and minerals because he was, according to Dr. Haggar, severely undernourished. The last one, the worst one, was the supposed hormone shot.   
  
It did start to burn less after the first few shots but the effect it had on his body seemed to get stronger and last longer each time. It made him feel like he was boiling on the inside, made him drip with cold clinging sweat constantly, and his stomach cramp endlessly. He was suddenly sensitive to touch, barely able to stand the feelings of the bindings holding him down or the occasional touches from the people who tended to him without flinching away.   
  
With no other way to keep track of things he started keeping time by each small defeat and humiliation.   
  
The first was when, on what he thought might have been the fourth day and his body was screaming for something he didn’t understand, he orgasmed from nothing but having that dildo inside of him, shaking and gasping and then crying softly, too overwhelmed and ashamed to do anything else. He couldn’t explain why it happened except that just having something inside of him, the feeling of weight and being open, made him crazy.

The second came a little later, when he was back in the room with the other omegas (the numbers had already begun to drop, from ten to eight) and an alpha guard came in. Keith knew he was an alpha because he could smell him, heavy musk and mouth watering spice, and that smell made him itch under his skin. He watched, breathing shallowly in attempt to not take in the scent, as the alpha crept over to one of the beds and hauled the omega sleeping there out from under their blankets. 

He watched as the omega was bent over, the straps of their harness shifted and moved out of the way, and as the alpha took hold of their hips and thrust forward. The omega’s scream was muffled by the alpha’s hand over their mouth but Keith could still hear it, hear them crying. 

He huddled under his own blanket and tried to block it out. Tried to pretend his body wasn’t reacting to the smell of alpha and sex creeping into the air, that the alphas grunts didn’t make him shiver and his stomach twist. The ever present plug shifted, slick loosening his body’s grip on it, and that made it worse. 

At some point the omega stopped crying and started letting out heartbreaking moans intersped with pleading for more instead. The honey sweet scent of omega and what Keith knew, even though it had been years since he’d smelled it, was ‘Heat’ burned his nose. 

His cock throbbed painfully and, when he reached down to take it in hand, the chain around his leg felt heavier than ever.    
  
\---   
  
After that things got worse, fast. So fast that he wondered if they were being watched, in their silent featureless cell like room, and if someone had been waiting for him to...to do something like what he’d done. 

When the machine was wheeled in he could only stare at it in confusion. It wasn’t much to look at at first glance, just two metal poles on a flat wheeled base with a black rectangle attached to it. The rectangle had a pole extending from a whole in the front and looked to be adjustable, sliding up the two poles under Dr. Haggar’s attention. When she was satisfied with where it was she wheeled it so it was between Keith’s legs, aching from so long in the same position, the pole pointed towards his ass.   
  
Keith, who had given up on voicing his anger and was now resolutely silent no matter what, watched with growing horror as another fake dick, about the same size as the one Dr. Haggar seemed to prefer leaving inside of him but with a large knot, was fixed onto the pole.   
  
Slick fingers forced him open enough to pull the knotted dildo out, letting slick gush free, but he wasn’t left that way for long. The machine was pushed a little closer, adjusted again, until the head of the silicone cock was just inside of him.   
  
He knew what was coming, or at least felt like he had a good idea, but still heard himself groaning weakly when it started moving, pushing in and then dragging out of him. It sank in easily, aided along by the wetness that was near constant inside of him now, and nudged that spot inside of him that he hated most of all.   
  
He thought that would be all there was, after all what could be worse than being fucked by some damn machine while some twisted bitch watched, but then the woman took hold of his dick. Keith’s toes curled and his throat tightened as bile rose up bitterly. When a cage, solid gleaming metal save a slit in the top where it fit over the head of his cock and a larger ring on the bottom, was slid onto his cock and fit around his balls he almost felt relieved.   
  
At least he wasn’t about to be forced to get off with Dr. Haggar’s hand on him.   
  
When it was locked shut with a small golden lock he was less relieved.   
  
When, what felt like hours later, he was near delirious from by then painful pleasure, dripping slick in streams and so hard in the cage that he would have begged for relief, he realized dimly that he was being tortured. Fucked endlessly, the strange gut twisting orgasms that came from the inside rolling into each other as his cock stayed small and useless. His body clung to the dildo and the knot, tried to rock forward onto it to keep it inside.   


He passed out at some point, hurting and wanting, and when he came to he was cleaned up, all the slick and drool and sweat cleared away, with the knotted plug firmly back inside of him.    
  
The cage became a permanent fixture after that. An omega’s cock was nothing be decoration, Hagger explained as she oversaw him washing himself with the new ‘addition’, and he needed to be used to not getting use out of it.    
  
\---

Dildos were shoved into his mouth, down his throat, and on a few occasions he was made to suck while the machine fucked his mouth. He sucked because not doing so got him into trouble, taught himself to keep his throat open and breathe through his nose so he didn't choke and pass out under the machine's merciless onslaught. 

Alphas were always there, watching and cheering him on, touching themselves. They released onto his skin, painting him with their seed, and drowning him with their pheromones. 

He was always dripping wet with slick by the the end of those 'lessons'. 

\---  
  
When the other ‘lessons’ started were when the brain addling shots were stepped up.   
  
The doctor walked in one ‘day’ with two larger men and a petite well dressed woman. He’d just been taken out of the omega room to be cleaned up then brought here and fed like a small child, unable to control his body to fight and escape, then given another shot even though he’d had his usual round before his meal. Now his brain felt odd, wouldn’t let him really focus on the people coming to crowd around him because his eyes kept sliding away.   
  
“This is it?” The woman asked, eyeing him skeptically. Her voice resonated, bouncing around in his skull, and he cringed. “This is the one Ms. McClain had to have? Not much to look at.”   
  
Dr. Haggar shrugged carelessly as she once again prodded at Keith’s entrance. He was empty, like he always after a cleaning and feeding, and felt the lack acutely. He was slowly getting used to having something inside of him, working him into a frenzy he could do nothing about.   
  
He told himself it was the drugs they were giving him that made his body react like it did, made him moan and writhe on those fake dicks, but he was becoming less and less sure it was true.   
  
“Well let’s get started then. Today, Omega, we will learn the proper way to present yourself to your alphas. These are essential skills for any decent omega to have and I expect you to absorb this carefully unless you wish to be punished.”     
  
He wanted to laugh. Punished? What could be worse than this?   
  
He was unstrapped and placed rather unceremoniously on the floor. One of the men, who smelled like sweat and something that made Keith’s head spin, yanked him up until he was on his knees with his back straight and his hands behind his back.   
  
“This is first position.” The woman said after pushing his shoulders back, stepping between his knees to force them apart, and making him pick his head up so he was looking straight ahead. He growled at her but she only quirked an eyebrow at him. “This is the waiting position. When awaiting commands this is how you will present yourself.”   
  
Next he was pushed so his thighs were against his calves and his back was allowed to round some. His head was pushed down so he was looking at the floor.   
  
“Second position, the informal position. In private with your alphas this is how you will present at their sides when not waiting unless allowed otherwise.”   
  
Then he was brought up off of his calves again but this time his knees were pushed back together and his head was kept down. “Formal position. In public you will maintain this position at all times, unless told otherwise. Your posture will be perfect, you will not look up, and you will not acknowledge any others. You will be a reflection of your owners.”   
  
He growled again, tried to pick his head up, but he was forced down instead. His hips were grabbed and pulled back then up, head and torso forced down, until he was on his spread apart knees with his ass up with his arms folded with his forehead pressed against them.   
  
He thought dazedly, another laugh working up in his throat, that he really was nothing but a doll to these people. And maybe to himself as well; he couldn’t even lift his own head anymore.   
  
“Fourth position, to present yourself for your alphas’ pleasure. Any questions?”   
  
He had a gag in, just a simple piece of fabric forced between his teeth this time. The woman sighed and made a noise. A moment later he was hauled up by his hair and the gag was yanked free by one of the large men. The woman made a ‘well’ gesture and for a long moment Keith just stared at her in her fancy tailored pantsuit and shiny heels. He couldn’t pull himself together, couldn’t find the words he needed. 

His brain was on fire.   
  
He spat on her feet. He didn’t quit make it, ended up just barely clearing his body.   
  
The hand in his hair tightened painfully and he saw a meaty hand rising up out of the corner of his eye. He expected to be hit, was ready to welcome some pain after all the other shit he’d been forced to feel, but it never came.   
  
The woman held up a hand and the fist he thought was going to hit him halted in mid air. She smiled, a razor sharp thing, then bent closer to him.   
  
“If you were any other omega I’d let these fine alphas here, and three or four of their friends, have their way with you all until you’d drained all of their knots with your ass and mouth.” Her dull green eyes grew bright behind the fringe of her ink black hair. “And I promise I would ensure your body craved it. Maybe you’d even beg for more when they were done.”   
  
His heart sank and his stomach dropped. Maybe he’d been wrong about things not getting worse. His first, visceral, thought was that he could never enjoy something like that but...after everything else that had happened he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.   
  
“But you’re the property of someone important and there just isn’t enough time for you to recover from something like that.” She straightened up abruptly and turned on her heel, long braid swishing after her. “Keep him in waiting position, towards the window.”   
  
The ‘punishment’ ended up being watching through the mirror that turned out to be a window as another omega, a blond boy with wet brown eyes who looked younger than Keith by a disturbing amount, was subject to what the woman had described.   
  
First the boy cried and screamed that he’d been good, that he had done everything he'd been told, but then he fell apart, moaning as he was used by men easily twice his size, face contorted in a haunting expression of bliss. They rubbed and nipped at his scent glands, used alpha commands and force to make him limp and docile, and when told him to scream he did, back arching and tears running down his face.   
  
Keith was told to not look away or else more alphas would be brought in.   
  
He didn’t cry and made himself stay silent but, once again, his body betrayed him and his cock grew hard and heavy between his thighs. It didn’t happen at first but, rather, as the scent from the man holding him up deepened and became thick and musky, filling his nose until he could almost taste it. He could see the outline of the man’s hardon in his jeans and, when the man shifted so close that Keith’s cheek was against his crotch, the smell grew stronger. A shift and he was nosing the outline of the alpha's erection and whimpering low in his throat.   
  
His mouth watered.   
  
He chanted silently that it wasn’t him, that he didn’t like what he was seeing or being so close to some alpha douchebag, but he wasn’t as sure as he wanted to be.   
  
The images and the guilt would haunt him even into his sleep.

The next time she came he did as he was told. When she went over table manners, the proper way to stand, made him wear high heels and walk...he took it all in and obeyed without question. She told him, while ruffling his hair, that he was one of her best students.   
  
\---   
  
He’d refused to eat after that but he just ended up with a tube down his throat and some oatmeal looking sludge forced into him day after day.   
  
When he refused to drink was worse because something that looked like an IV pole with two bulging bags of something clear was wheeled in. The ‘nurse’ (he didn’t know if she was a nurse but she wore brightly colored scrubs so that’s how he thought of her) pierced the bags with thin tubs then attached the tubing to a gag that was shaped like a dick. The ring gag was taken out and then he was held down and forced to keep his mouth open by a large man who stank of alpha while the cock gag was forced into his mouth and strapped into place. It sat on his tongue, tasting overwhelmingly of plastic, but wasn’t so big that it was really that uncomfortable.   
  
It dripped occasionally, cool droplets of water over his tongue.   
  
They came in and out, continued everything else as normal, but no more food or drink was offered. He wasn’t sure how long he lasted, holding his mouth wide and refusing to suck or swallow until he was dizzy and his stomach hurt constantly and his mouth was dry, lips cracking, thoughts hazy and confused.   
  
What he did know was that when he finally gave in and sucked the damn thing to make water flow over his tongue and down his throat that nothing had ever felt so good and so terrible all at once.   
  
After that the penis gag became the usual one and the only way he was given water at all.   
  
\---   
  
He didn’t know when it happened but the collar around his neck was replaced with something more lightweight and, as it turned out, outfitted to send painful waves of electricity through his body when he disobeyed and watching a gangrape wasn’t on the table. When he growled they shocked him. When he rolled his eyes or tried to bite when he was ungagged he was shocked.   
  
The one time he got up the strength to run away from the room they bathed him in he was shocked until he was convulsing in a puddle of his own piss and hoped he was going to be allowed to just die.   
  
When Ms. McClain (the daughter and future heir, as was explained to him, not the mother who actually ran the family) visited and he was strung up with clamps on his nipples, cock in the cage, and the machine fucking him again and he dared to snap his teeth at her he had one of the knotted dildos shoved into his mouth, forcing him to open wider than ever before then locking behind his teeth and then he was rhythmically shocked until he wasn’t sure what hurt and what felt good. He came over and over, had slick forming a puddle under him and sliding down to splatter the floor, when darkness finally swallowed him up.    
  
\---   
  
He felt like it was years, an eternity, before Dr. Haggar announced that he was ready to be sent to the McClain family.   
  
“Well. Not ready .” The doctor corrected. “I would need double, triple, the time, but we have made amazing strides in the time we had, haven’t we?”     
  
Keith nodded dumbly.   
  
Dr. Haggar smiled proudly then held up a syringe. “This is meant to activate your heat so it’s a much higher dose than usual. It may burn again but it’s critical for the bonding process. They're asking for miracle, as they always do.”   
  
He winced when it pricked his skin and something that felt like liquid fire was pushed into him. But he didn’t fight it even though the only thing keeping him in place was the collar around his neck and the chain connecting it to a post. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d tried to fight.   
  
There was no escaping this place and he understood that now.   
  
He had to wait until he was away from the constant surveillance and other people who could be used against him and that meant playing docile and broken.   
  
Only until he could get away.    
  
It was just an act.   
  
Just for now.


	3. When You Play The Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith makes some hard choices. Shiro and Lance show up but they're working on real limited information. Bad touch Sendak.

Keith was expecting to be handed over to whoever it was he belong to now right away. Instead he was given another series of shots along with some pills he didn't dare try to avoid swallowing, told to put on a plain cotton robe, had his arms bound behind his back, and hustled out to a dark fancy car. He didn't expect the man from the truck who he'd fought with, Sendak?, to be standing there, waiting. He smiled when he saw Keith and it made the eyepatch over his eye pull tight and the scar that trailed beneath it, clearly new and barely healed, stand out against his swarthy skin.

His escorts pushed him close enough for Sendak to wrap a hand around his bicep; Keith tried flinching away from Sendak's punishing grip but the man just hauled him forward, fingers baring down tight enough to bruise. His escorts was talking, something about no more than five minutes, and Sendak inclined his head towards them in acknowledgement but his eyes stayed on Keith, trailing over him. He wanted to tug at him robe, far too short for his liking, but refused to give away that he was uncomfortable or let Sendak see him flinch again. So he stared straight ahead, face as slack as he could make it, back rigid, as the car door was opened and he was unceremoniously shoved inside. He landed on his face, legs splayed awkwardly, and before he'd had a chance to right himself Sendak had slid in behind him. The door shut behind him with a deafening click. Keith’s eyes widened and he started to thrash around.

“Turns out that you did a real number on my eye Omega. I've been thinking about it these past two months, every time I look at myself.”

Keith jerked and tried to twist around to stare up at the alpha. Two months? He'd been here two months? That was...honestly he didn't know what it was. Too short a time for everything that had happened? Way too long for him to have been under someone's thumb like that?

How did other omegas survive years of grooming at omega schools?

Huge hands gripped his legs and dragged him backwards over the leather seat. He kicked out, slamming against the door and window but never quite catching the man, and ended up hauled back until Sendak was too close, practically flush with his body. The hands shifted to his hips as Sendak moved forward, over him, until his considerable bulk was flattening Keith down against the seat.

His heart started beating harder, thundering against his ribcage. He had a plan for this, to get out of this place and then play along until he could escape, but letting this stupid fuck, or anyone else do anything to him was not the plan. Not now, not ever. He didn't care what they did to him, how they had turned him into a stranger in his own body, he wasn't giving in to...that.

He wouldn't be anyone's whore.

Even if Sendak's scent was disgustingly appealing, sweet smoke and alpha arousal that made his toes curl and sourness rise up in his throat, and he was warm and solid against him, pinning him effortlessly as his hands pushed under the hem of his robe. Keith's stomach flipped and that loathsome liquid feeling came back, slippery and tingling. Sendak rutted forward, clothed erection digging into Keith and-

No. Not this!

He hated this body. Hated that he'd been born like this and that all his work to control it undone in a matter of months- No, in a matter of days. This wasn't who he wanted to be, he'd never wanted this, to be an omega, but he just couldn't escape it. And it was even worse now, with so many awful feelings and instincts lurking just under his skin, ready to take him under. He was betraying himself with every breath he took.

He squirmed around as hard as he could, trying to push back with his bound arms, pushing his feet hand against the door. Sendak chuckled then leaned against his harder, gave him no space and forced the air out of his lungs..

“I won't do anything noticeable to you.” Was breathed against his ear as his hand somehow fit between Keith's body and the seat to slide between his legs. “Not now. But when your rich owners realize how broken you are and they get rid of you I'll be waiting to take you for my own until Haggar finds someone else to see you to. Or maybe you’ll get send to a breeding farm or whore house.”

He squeezed Keith’s cock, first lightly and then hard enough to make him whimper and try to fold in on himself, eyes tearing up as stabs of pain cut through his stomach. “Either way I'll pay you back for the eye.” Another squeeze and then Sendak was lifting off of him. Keith stayed as still as possible, pain radiating from between his legs, and watched from the corner of his eye as Sendak rapped on the window. The door was opened and Sendak slide out, tossing a ‘Thank You’ to the escorts still standing there. No one glanced towards Keith and the door was once again shut with a resolute slam.

He waited a few moments, breathing shallowly and willing the fear and pain away, before leveraging himself up into a sitting position Keith tried the door handles, or went to do so only to find there was nothing to grab. He felt along the windows, the seams of the door, everywhere he could in hopes of finding something at all but, when the car lurched into action and pulled out of an underground garage his attention went to the outside world. He scooted around so he could press his face to the glass, eager to take in his surroundings.

Figuring out where he was would be crucial to planning his escape.

He wasn’t sure where he thought he was being held but images of a shady warehouse or rundown building in the middle of nowhere had filled his mind. After all he’d been taken, kidnapped and sold, so it had to be some sort of shady illegal setup, hidden away from normal people didn't it? Nothing else had ever occurred to him.

What he saw, however, was a glass and metal building, gleaming brightly in the mid-day sunlight, in the middle of a well manicured grassy campus. There were other buildings, all about the same as the one he’d driven out from under, and one impossibly tall one in the center of it all. There were people milling about between the buildings, in suits, lab coats, and scrubs, sitting on benches and at tables.

It was...normal. No, more than normal, it was nice. Clean.

They went around a loop and through a gate, where a security guard leaned out of a booth and spoke to the driver, hidden from Keith’s sight by a darkly tinted partition, before they were driving again. He turned around once they were through the gate, craning his neck to peer through the back window. There was a sign in front of the guard booth with Galra Training Facility printed on it in tall black block letters.

The name didn’t mean anything to him but as they turned from one winding road to another and then another it made sense. They weren’t in Arus City anymore, not even close. There was nothing like this. He was used to tall old buildings built practically on top of each other and just on the edge of crumbling away to nothingness, ratty squat apartment buildings that were just barely livable, dirty trash filled streets with cracked sidewalks. He had grown up with a skyline blocked by the tall buttresses and tracks that made up the train that snaked above Arus City’s streets and the constant rattle of said train as it roared around.

Instead they went from that grassy campus to a long stretch of road lined with trees and fields on either side. There was nothing else that he could see beyond the trees, save other cars racing along besides them. There was a sign after a little bit, or at least he felt like it was a little bit, that said ‘Altea City, 100Km’ and he found himself staring at it in shock.

Altea City was Arus City’s sister city, on the opposite side of the Sina River, but was a literal world apart. Sometimes Keith had climbed up onto the tracks with the other kids from the orphanage and looked out at the tall shining skyscrapers of downtown Altea City and wondered what it’d be like to go there.

Not that they ever would. The government regulated travel over the bridge and only the rich and powerful could hope to even visit the other city. He’d heard stories that, back right after the divide and all the laws had come down, people had tried to swim the river but no one ever made it. Or so the stories went. Either way he couldn’t fathom being so far from Altea City, and thus far from Arus City. He'd never left his city before and now he was...he didn't even know where he was.

He wasn’t sure how long they drove or when he passed out, just that at some point he started to feel dizzy like he had back in the club when this nightmare began. The last thing he really remembered was banging on the partition with his feet, shouting and swearing at the driver, and then everything went dark.

When he came to he was hot, sweating, leaking again, and being carried somewhere. He tried to squirm away but whoever was holding him kept a firm grip. He thrashed and swore but found himself too tired and achy to keep going almost as soon as he’d started. His head felt like it weighed twice what it should and any movement seemed to take so much effort.

He could tell the man carrying him was an alpha. Before, when the suppressants had been in his system, he wouldn’t have been able to pick out an alpha from a crowd but now. Now things were different. His ability to scent other dynamics was not only no longer dulled but after so long having alphas in that room with him, watching every terrible thing that had happened, and having to deal with the heady note their scents gained when they were aroused, he felt like he would know an alpha anywhere.

Dr. Haggar had said it was ‘immersion’ training, so he would associate knotting and his orgasms with alphas, as was ‘natural’. If he was a ‘proper’ omega he would respond to alphas and their smell and the shifts in their scent on instinct, would know to submit to them, but instead he would need to be surrounded by it, practically drowned in Alpha. It was the only way to ‘fix’ him.

He’d hated every moment of it, hated the alphas and their leering stares and how he just knew they were imagining him on their dicks instead of those fake ones, but most of all he’d hated how good they smelled. Hated the way he’d get to the edge of orgasm and would be practically drooling at the smell of alphas wanted to fuck him, salty and spicy and so thick in the air.

Hated that even now, as he was being taken to someone who had bought him and then paid people to tame him like a pet, that he wanted to bury his nose into his captors clothing and breathe him in.

The familiar warmth in him was worse than it usually was and his body was starting to hurt as well, a dull throbbing somewhere deep inside of him.

He was handed over to a short dour looking man and a bunch of women, all betas. He considered, as he was lead to what looked like a small indoor pool full of bubbles and sweet smelling water, running away. He felt tired and weak, yes, but what could one old guy and some delicate looking women do to stop him even in this state, really?

A glance towards the door dashed that plan. Two large men in suits and dark glasses were standing by the door, serious faced. They looked like the sort who would be carrying guns or might have access to the remote to his collar. The idea of being shocked again, of the white hot pain of electricity coursing through his body and setting his nerves on fire until there was nothing but pain, kept him from doing it.

He was stripped and washed quickly then scrubbed down with rough salty smelling paste. The ones washing him ignored that it nearly brought him to tears because his skin was so overly sensitive. He was rinsed again, dried, and then held down, a gag in his mouth, while he was waxed smooth all over. Another harsh scrub and rinse then he was rubbed down with scented oils that warmed when they touched his skin. The gag came out, but only after the collar was tapped as a reminder to mind his tongue.

They dressed him in a filmy stomach and arm baring, but high necked, red top and a black flared skirt that hit him just below his knees and had a stiff red bow around the waist. He was made to fit his feet into uncomfortable heeled shoes and then sat down to have his hair played with and makeup put on his face and when they were done and he was allowed to see himself he didn't know who he was looking at.

Not just the clothes, which were stiff and smelled odd, but himself. The delicately applied makeup, lips painted a soft red eyelids a shimmering gray, hair curled and pinned up and curled. His arms had visibly lost muscle tone and he looked...softer all over. Rounder in the hips and legs.

He didn't know this person. Didn't want to know them.

He was moved along, wobbling awkwardly in his shoes, and he tried to take in absolutely everything. It was hard, his brain was foggy and his stomach was starting to cramp worse and it felt like...like something he didn't want to think about. His legs were like jelly but he made himself stay upright, shrinking away from touch. He needed to learn this house (he was fairly certain it was a house, and a large one at that) He started at the far end on the second floor and was lead down straight hallway; it looked like the whole level was arranged off of the one hallway, all the doors visible.

Then stairs downstairs into a large entryway with a floor of marble and large clean windows to let in lots of light. He eyes the door, guarded by a man, as he went past it and tried to take in what he could of the outside. A stone walkway, then a pool, and past that grass as far as he could see. But he knew there was a garage somewhere because he’d been taken straight from the car to here and that meant there was road access.

Road access meant an easier change of running.

Down one hallway then another, counting doors and paying attention to paintings and fixtures as landmarks. He built a map in his head; it would take another few passes to get it down pat but he could do it soon enough. He’d always been good with that sort of thing, had a head for images and figures.

He just had to play nice for a little while.

The destination was a small, fancy sitting room. The beta man, now in control of the remote to his collar, motioned for him to stand next to couch a high back, golden claw feet, and an ugly floral print.

“Ms. McClain, the lady of the house, will be bringing her sons to see you and make sure you meet with their approval.” The beta man said, frowning at him disapprovingly. “I would suggest you be on your best behavior or they’ll send you back where you came from.”

Keith’s lips started to twist but then he stopped himself, looking away. Being sent back seemed like it might be a good thing, on the surface, but even if he didn’t have the threat of Sendak waiting for his revenge he didn’t know that he could take anymore of that ‘training’. No, it was better to take his chances escaping here instead of a highly secure facility 100km away from the nearest city where he’d be back to be strapped onto a machine and

And without the ‘do not touch’ mandate.

He had to play this game for now.

\---

Shiro picked up on the scent before he did, stopping abruptly in the hallway and going rigid. Lance turned his head to watch his best friend’s pupil’s widen as his nostrils flared. Shiro tilted his head back, inhaling deeply, then blinked slowly.

“There’s an omega here?”

Lance’s eyebrows went up as he whipped back around to look at his mother who was watching them with a slight frown on her lips. “What?”

“I should have known you’d smell it. I’ve never been able to surprise you.” Was her response as she turned back around, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Shiro has, as I told you, a very sensitive sense of smell; it’s more like an omega’s than an alpha’s. I understand he inherited it from his birth mother .”

Lance cringed at her tone, one of unveiled scorn, but Shiro didn’t show any signs of having heard the words. He never showed any hint that he might be upset even though Lance knew it had to bother him how people talked about his birth mother, as if being an omega had been a choice she’d made. Or maybe Shiro had been with them so long that it truly didn’t register anymore. Anytime Lance tried to broach the subject he’d just dismiss it in that calm way of his so it was impossible to really know how Shiro felt about his birth mother.

The man with her, a beta in scrubs and a lab coat who called himself Haxus, nodded while casting a curious look back at Shiro then hurried to fall back into step with Lance’s mother. Lance hesitated, casting a sidelong look at Shiro who just shrugged at him, then walked after the pair.

His mother had been waiting outside of the pool house he and Shiro stayed in for them, looking as prim and put together as she always did, promising them a ‘considerable coming of age present’. Lance had figured it would be something like new cars or one of the other estates or something else stupidly lavish.

She had a tendency towards that sort of thing, as least where he and Shiro were concerned. She was harder on Tess, his older sister, because she’d be taking over the family one day whereas Lance...well, he wasn’t sure what he’d be doing yet but it wouldn’t be as important as what Tess did. And Shiro got everything Lance got and, at the end of the day, that made them both ‘spoiled’. Lance was self aware enough to acknowledge it for what it was, perks of being the second born alpha and having the mother her did.

The only thing even close to as important as running the family business to her was keeping up appearances and making sure everyone was aware of the money and power behind the McClain name. If that meant making sure her sons had disgusting expensive toys then so be it. They were, after all, her ultimate props.

He respected her for everything she’d done; marrying into a powerful family, a beta nurse who’d caught the attention of Roman McClain, son of a crime boss. She’d birthed two alpha children, capable heirs that assured that she couldn’t be tossed aside for a younger woman at some point and then, when his father had died and his grandfather had fallen ill, she’d seamlessly taken over the family. She claimed, of course, to be acting in his grandfather’s interests, under his orders, but Lance wasn’t entirely sure the old man was even still alive (nor did he care really. He was much closer to his mother’s side of the family, hardworking ‘normal’ people who made him mow the law, as opposed to being actual crime bosses). She’d adopted Shiro, the alpha son of one of her lovers and that was just something Lance tried not to think about, when he was 12 and raised him with the same privilege Lance had in hopes that he would always have someone loyal at his side.

She deserved respect for everything she’d done and everyone with sense gave it to her. Including Lance.

Keeping up appearances was just as important as everything else she did as acting head of the McClain Family. He understood the importance of it as well, they had to maintain a certain image to their allies, and enemies, and make sure no one forgot where they stood in society. They had to walk the line between being ruthless and being personable and fair to those who were loyal to them. That was the trick to keeping that loyalty but also making their enemies think twice about crossing them.

It was politics.

To that end he really shouldn’t have been so surprised by this latest move. While it was rare it wasn’t unheard of for the alpha children of rich families to be given an omega when they came of age. It was the ultimate status symbol to own an omega; even though their population was slowly rebounding after the plague that had cut their numbers to a fraction of what they’d once been a few generations ago, thanks in no small part to the breeding protocols that demanded all omegas begin having children by the age of twenty, they were still rare. No other flashy toy or gift could compare to owning an omega.

He knew there were a few alphas in his mother’s social circle (Shiro’s biological father for one) who had more than one omega, entire harems, and were envied for it. He also knew a few who kept one as a mistress, a pretty thing to keep alongside their wife or husband and show off at functions, and a few others who’d actually married their omega. He knew far far more who were watching the omega schools like hawks, just waiting to be able to make a bid and praying they’d be able to have one of their own.

Lance hadn’t ever given it much thought. He was busy with school, he was starting his first year at Altea University next month, and shadowing his mother and Tess when they did business. He considered himself lucky when he even managed to find time to do things with his friends on occasion. Worrying about finding and then caring for a pretty pet just wasn’t something on his radar. There was already too much to do, too much to get ready for and make sure he had a handle on, without adding needless personal things to the mix.

Simply put he didn’t have time for an omega or the children that would inevitably follow.

Not that it looked like he was getting a choice.

Which was typical with his mother.

His mother glanced back and rolled her eyes. “Shiro, hurry up. This is for you too.”

Lance hadn’t even realized Shiro had stopped but, a look over his shoulder found the other man wearing a wary expression. It was with a grudging nod that Shiro shuffled forward, hands deep in his pockets. He sent him a questioning glance but Shiro shook his head minutely, a clear sign for him to drop it.

The walk to the ‘guest receiving room’, on the far end of the first floor, went by with only his mother’s chatter as she explained about her gift to them.

“I do understand sharing an omega is unconventional but I thought it best to not overwhelm you all at once. When you’ve proven you are responsible and can care for it we can discuss finding a few others who suit your individual tastes.” She said, voice stern. “I am assured it will be in heat, to facilitate the bonding process-”

“You want one of us to bond with them?” Lance asked then felt stupid once it the words were out and he was on the receiving end of a very bland look.

Of course one of them would bond with the omega, it was the only way to solidify ownership. Without a bond it was possible for an omega to be stolen by someone else and forced into their service but once bonded that wouldn’t be possible without breaking something like half of the Breeding Protocols. Beyond that a bonded omega would never submit to anyone else like they did the person they were bound to and, supposedly, their bodies wouldn’t allow someone else’s seed to take root. If you took away the loyalty, submission, and breeding potential there was no point to keeping an omega let alone breaking the law to keep them and thus there was no point to taking a bonded omega.

Bonds also kept them from running away.

In theory.

Shiro’s mother had been...the exception that proved the rule.

“Both of you.” She corrected with a careless flip of her hand.

Lance opened his mouth then shut it, brow furrowing. Both of them? While it was normal for an alpha to bond to many people, since it was supposed to be their nature to try and sire as man children as possible, an omega could only bond once unless the alpha broke it.

At least that’s what he’d thought.

“Is that possible?” He asked finally.

“In theory yes.” The man at her side nodded enthusiastically. “It’s actually quite the feat. Normally an omega will refuse any alphas once they’ve been bonded, you understand, but Dr. Haggar theorizes that an enhanced heat state will make it so the omega will accept as many alphas are needed to break their heat.”

“The omega should, at this stage, be in what we’re calling a White Heat. It,” Here Haxus paused and glanced up at his mother nervously before clearing his throat. “Normally an omega will cycle between a yellow and red heat state until they’re sufficiently...satisfied or, if without a partner, the heat breaks. A white state is, essentially, a critical point where, for whatever reason, the omega’s body allows a heat to continue. It can be...fatal.”

Lance stopped again, breath catching in his throat, looking to the side expecting to see Shiro looking bothered as well but found his friend staring distractedly at the ground and breathing shallowly. His fingers twitched to reach out and touch the other alpha but he made himself return his attention to his mother instead. He knew she could be...callous, that was the nature of the job (attachments were dangerous and being anything but hard was asking for trouble) but this had gone from 'present he didn't really want' to 'fucking nuts' really quickly.

“Fatal? As in...fatal? Mother-”

She tsked, somehow managing to look offended as if he was in the wrong for even asking her. “Don’t worry Lance. It’s just to, oh what did Dr. Haggar say, make it’s self-preservation instinct override everything else?”

“Exactly.” Haxus nodded again. “To make the omega accept more than one alpha. Their body will do anything to break the heat, including take multiple partners, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Unless you decide to fight over it. That could be a problem. Oh, or if you didn’t want the omega. But, realistically, we could ramp down the heat level with drugs if needed.”

That was good to know. 

Lance started to roll his eyes; there was nothing in the world that would make him fight Shiro but then he breathed in and for a second he was unsure. They were outside of the sitting room doors now. There were guards there, two alphas that Lance knew his mother was fond of, and he could see that they both looked flustered. Standing there, with only the double doors separating them from the room, he could understand it. He could smell the barely there touch of omega in the air, syrupy sweetness, mixed with something that made him forget, for a moment, what he’d just been upset about. It was just a hint of something, so light he almost wasn’t sure it was there at all, but it was calling to him like a siren begging him to enter its waters.

He glowered at the guards; he could scent the arousal on them, musky and offensive to his nose, and it set his teeth on edge. They didn’t belong here, shouldn’t have been spreading their smell around. This was his pack’s territory and these two weren’t pack.

“I doubt that will be a problem.” He heard his mother distantly, like she was miles away, but he saw her knowing smirk and it was enough to bring him back to reality. He dropped his hand from the door handle, couldn’t even remember stepping forward to open the door, and took a step back.

If just a hint of omega in heat, something he’d never been privy to before, was getting to him like this then he couldn’t begin to imagine how Shiro, who’d smelled it when they were at the other end of the hall, was maintaining control.

The answer, it seemed, was barely. Shiro was breathing harder, a flush working its way up his face, and his teeth were biting deep into his lower lip. Lance swallowed, considering the tightness in his friend’s shoulders, then shook his head as he tried to clear his head more.

He had concerns. For one he didn’t want an omega, not even half of one. Secondly he didn’t know the person on the other side of the door, what if they didn’t get along or were too much of a bother? He’d heard some omegas could be spoiled after their time in those Omega Finishing Schools and Lance was, frankly, all the spoiled he could stand.

Shouldn’t they speak first, make sure his mother hadn’t wasted what was surely a ton of money on an omega he hated?

Oh but that smell. He knew, knew like he knew how to breath and walk, that the omega waiting in the room was wet and needy and waiting. The back of his brain, the dark twisting part that was so very much the alpha and didn’t care about social niceties, about being polite and making friends and being decent, howled at him to take and feel and mate and fill.

“Control yourself.” His mother said, shaking her head. “Honestly. Make sure it meets your standards before you decide to mount it.”

Lance made a face, the fact his mother was talking about him mounting anything having an effect like being doused with ice water. He shook his head then, glancing back to make sure Shiro was still with him. He was and, while Lance could tell he was struggling, he met his eyes and nodded. He pushed open the door, swallowing back a groan at the wave of scent that washed over him, and stepped in.

The omega was standing there, next to the ugly couch his sister had insisted on (as if he and Shiro would ever even use this room of their own free will) and he was...not hard to look at. Black hair, narrow violet eyes, pale skin that was currently flushed pink, a body that Lance was slightly embarrassed to say he zoned in on alarmingly fast. Smaller than he and Shiro were, but taller than omegas usually ran, broader in the shoulders than he would have expected. But Lance didn’t dislike it.

He moved closer without realizing he was doing it, pulled in like he was on strings. The omega didn’t move, barely even breathed, as Lance and Shiro came within touching distance. It got harder to think as he got closer, harder to get air into his lungs because everything was dripping of honey and omega, and his fingers ached to reach out and feel him. Dark eyes watched him closely but they were glassy, heavy lidded.

“If you like it, then it’s all yours.” His mother’s voice tugged him back. “There’s some paperwork to fill out still, signatures, but I’ll have a guard take him up to the guest room while we do it.”

Lance opened his mouth to say...something, probably to accept, but Shiro spoke first, looking pained. “I don’t...what about what he wants?" 

Oh. Right. That was important. Lance knew some people were in the habit of just buying up omegas, uncaring of how the omega felt about them, but he knew that could backfire. Shiro knew it even better than he did and wouldn't want to be part of anything like that; Lance didn't want to be either. He didn't care how good he smelled.

And he smelled perfect so that was saying something. 

His mother looked unimpressed. "I bought it, nothing except what you want matters." 

“Please, alphas.” The omega said quietly. Shiro’s eyes widened, pupils swallowing up the color in an instant. “I want to stay.”

\---

He was barely able to stand by the time the alphas he supposed he now belonged to left, body wracked with sharp pains in his stomach and molten fire blazing in his blood. As bad as it had been to be locked up and kept in a near constant turned on state, fucked by that machine until he was a drooling mindless mess, this was...worse.

He was nearly blind, unable to begin to focus or see through his tear blurred eyes, when he was scooped up and carried away.

It had taken everything he had in him to stand still and say a pathetic six words but he seemed to have managed. He felt sick, couldn’t believe he’d said he wanted to be here but, he reminded himself as he was stripped down again, this was just...this was just what he had to do. Better here than there.

He was going to escape soon. He would. He had to.

It was hard to keep hold of that though. He hurt so badly.

And it was only getting worse with each passing moment. The throbbing inside of him was getting stronger, the cramps were becoming sharper, and he felt like he was going to burn to ash at any moment. He was hard and slick but couldn’t bring himself to care or feel embarrassed about all the people touching him when he in such a state. Not even when something was pushed into him, slipping in easily because of how wet he was, could he feel anything except frustration because it wasn’t enough to satisfy the empty ache blooming inside of him. He lifted his hips, moaned around a hiccuping sob, and tried to push his hips back as if that would move it deeper. A cage was fixed around his cock, the weight familiar by now, and he whined dizzily. 

He wasn’t sure he had much shame left in him one way or the other.

Delicate looking chains were fixed to the rings that had been put into his nipples, pierced at a point he could barely recall because he’d been so drugged up during it, then crossed over his torso around his back and back to his front to be looped through the ring in his belly button. Another, thicker, chain went through the ring in the front of his shock collar followed by what looked like the tag you’d see on a dog. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find someone’s name engraved in the front but he didn’t bother trying to look.

His hair was brushed out and allowed to fall normally and then he was forced, weak kneed and so very tired, into what amounted to a filmy slip that barely covered his ass. The beta man walked around him then nodded. More men came, alphas he realized dimly when his knees finally gave out and he ended up on the ground. They talked over him, words he couldn’t follow because the tile under him was so blissfully cool against his skin he couldn’t think about anything but how good it felt, and then he was picked up again.

Each step as he was carried jostled him and made him writhe in something that wasn’t exactly pain. The need to scent the alpha holding him was stronger, almost all consuming, and he found himself twisting his fingers into the man’s suit jacket and undulating against him without fully realizing he’d started doing it.  

He could smell the spike of want on the man and it made him dizzy. He made a noise he could barely recognize as coming from his mouth; the alpha went still for a moment, scent growing stronger. A tightness settled in his belly.

“Don’t.” Someone else said. “The boss will take your balls if she thinks you’re even thinking about touching her birthday gift.”

“Yeah.” He felt the word vibrate in the alpha’s chest. “No. We’re fine. Seems like a waste though, giving something so nice to those brats of hers. I know you can smell how ready to go it is.”

A snort. “Keep your nose to yourself. It’s not worth it.”

Nothing else was said after that and, much to his disappointment, he was dropped onto something soft a moment later then flipped over onto his stomach. Face first in what he was sure was a bed he was overtaken by the smells of different alphas. The two who'd come to look at him, a mixture of something salty and woodsy then made his gums itch and saliva pool in his mouth when he breathed it in.

It was so strong, clinging to everything and wrapping around him, stronger even than when he’d been in that other alpha’s arms. He pressed his face deeper into the smell, unable to keep himself from rutting against the sheets and groaning quietly as the satisfying feeling of fabric brushing over him through the gaps in the cage. 

He barely registered when his hands were lifted, one after the other, and something soft was wrapped around them or the sound of footsteps moving away. Everything else seemed meaningless compared to the thick smell of alpha in his nose. He could practically taste them in his mouth and his mind started to feel fuzzy, as if he were drunk.

He wanted...

Wanted...

...he was in heat. 

That was...bad. Really really bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Lance and Shiro. I want to stress that they are the products of their environment (and have been hardcore scent whammied but, as you can see, that just makes them a little dumb and is not in any way presented as an excuse for anything they might do.) They both had some issues with how omegas are treated, but not enough to question the system. 
> 
> Yet.
> 
> I don't want to frame them as bad people but rather cogs in the machine. Most people, when raised in an oppressive society that benefits them, don't think to question it. Shiro and Lance are alphas in an alpha dominated society; the only reason they have issues at all is because Shiro's mother was an omega and...well. Things.


	4. So I Bare My Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If he let himself think about it he suspects this outcome was inevitable and that he's been fooling himself all along. So he doesn't think about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo. Sex in this chapter. Is dubiously consensual on all sides; everyone is saying yes but Keith wouldn't if he weren't in heat and if Shiro and Lance had all the information they'd probably run in the other direction, trying desperately to understand how something like this could possibly happen.

Paperwork was already boring, and by far the worse part of being a member of a family that had it’s hands in various endeavors, but the paperwork to accept the omega was even worse. Lance was jumpy, high on omega pheromones and excited despite his best attempts to tell himself to calm down. This was important stuff and not filling out right could get them in trouble with the government for Breeding Act Violations.

The McClains always did as much above board as they could. There was no reason to invite trouble or investigation when so much about what they did was...less than legal. All it took was one loose cord being pulled at for everything to unravel so it was important to keep as much tight and together as he could. That meant submitting registration and bonding papers, accepting a bunch of information of omega care and signing more stuff promising to actually read it. And then there were the forms agreeing to breed within a certain time frame, and that made Lance’s skin crawl and Shiro didn’t look any more pleased about it, but it was years off and it wasn’t something that was that rigorously enforced for alphas under twenty-five, regardless of omega age, or so Haxus assured them.

Lance still hesitated over it, he wasn’t totally opposed to have children one day and he understand why the breeding laws existed, but the idea of having a time table was just gross. But it was something everyone did and managed to deal with. It wasn’t like they were special or above the rules everyone else followed.

He probably wouldn’t have done it if the omega’s words weren’t still ringing in his ears. ‘Please alphas. I want to stay’. He’d like to meet the alpha who could refuse that because it wasn’t him.

So he signed that one too then pushed it over to Shiro to do the same.

“Keith.” Shiro murmured, flipping the papers around. “His name is Keith? No last name?”

Haxus looked surprised at the question then looked down at the folder in his hand. “Um. Well it belongs to you, of course, so any name you think is suitable when the registration paperwork is done is what it can be but, uh, let me- Keith, no last name on file but that’s not surprising considering he’s from Arus. Omegas like that don’t usually want to be reminded of where they came from and happily take the name of their alphas.”

Shiro looked skeptical but that made sense to Lance. Arus was a shithole; presenting as an omega and getting out was probably the best thing to ever happen to Keith. Who would want to be reminded of that awful place if they could just wash their hands of it.

“Age 17, male omega. He’s not...he didn’t go a finishing school but, again, that happens to omegas in Arus, so he might be a little rough around the edges but considering the white heat he shouldn’t be too much trouble and-”

Lance stopped listening. Who would have thought there was so much crap involved in this sort of thing. It was almost enough to make him reconsider agreeing.

_Alphas please. I want to stay._

Or not.

Once that was done they filed off to the guest bedroom, Haxus prattling on about discipline and how important it was to keep a firm hand if their omega stepped out of line.

“They like to push boundaries, in order to feel you out and see what they can get away with and whatever you let them have in the beginning is how they’ll assume it always is. Omegas want to be controlled, that’s their nature, but they want alphas who can earn that control. If you can't do that the disobedience will never end and respect will never develop.”

Lance could see Shiro making a fae out of the corner of his eye but he didn’t say anything; it was impossible to tell just what his expression meant. Distaste? Disagreement? Something else? Shiro caught his eye then shook his head, a silent request for him to drop it.

They were outside of the guest bedroom and that made it easier than Lance wanted to admit to set aside his concerns. He eyed the door, strayed close enough that he could catch the barest hint of Keith through it, and his focus grinded and clicked, gears shifting.

Back to this. ...What were they going to do, exactly? Time spent signing papers hadn’t lessened to pull the omega’s heat had on him; if anything it had heightened it. His body had wanted to pounce, to take, and he’d told it to wait. But now it was tired of waiting.

“You’ll want these.” Haxus said. Lance blinked at him, and the two blister packs he was holding in his outstretched hand, unable to fully process what was being said. Part of himself was already in the room, wrapped up in what was just behind the door, and not interested in what some loud beta, who had reeked of fear every time he glanced at Lance’s mother, had to say. “They’ll help your first few knots go down faster, to facilitate the double bonding. ...they’re dissolvable.”

Right. The double bonding.

Shiro shifted to the side of him and for a moment Lance felt a prickle of something dark and possessive. A whisper for him to fight the other, to take the omega for his own, to-

Shiro glanced up to meet his gaze and the aggression faded as if it had never been, replaced with a certainty that there was no need to fight. They shared everything, lived in the same space like unmated alphas rarely could, had never had conflict over territory or pack or friends or felt like they had anything to prove to each other. There was no reason for this to be any different.

This was fine. More than fine, this was how things were supposed to work. Everything he had was Shiro’s and everything Shiro had was his.

He plucked the blister packs from the beta’s hands and handed one to Shiro who visibly relaxed at the gesture. Lance let the pack, and the small green pill he could see inside of it, sit in his hand, trying to force himself to think clearly about what he was doing (was this how he wanted to do this? If someone had asked him yesterday he would have said no, of course he’d never fuck and bond some omega he didn’t know, that was insane. And his mother would have rolled her eyes and scolded him for his romantic notions.) but the longer he stood there, the sweet wet smell of omega leaking out of the room to cling to him, the harder it was to do it.

He wasn’t a virgin, not even close, but walking into a room and sleeping with someone he didn’t know didn’t sit right. Though, part of him whispered, this wasn’t just ‘someone’. This was his-their- omega. It belonged to them, all they had to do was lay claim to it. That was how most people did it and that wasn’t wrong, because if it was wrong then people wouldn’t go along with it.

But it was also true some people got to know their omegas, took possession and then learned things about them, married them even. And while he’d never thought much omegas one way or the other he’d always thought that sort of thing sounded nice.

The beta smiled broadly as he shuffled aside to let them pass, saying something about photocopies and how he’d leave them downstairs in the kitchen for them, but Lance could only see the door and only hear Shiro, breathing heavily, at his heels.

He told himself, as he pushed the handle down, that signing for the omega and going into the room didn’t mean anything. Of course they were accepting the gift, so signing was just the thing to do. And going inside would give them a chance to talk to the omega- _Keith_. It was just smart, really, to go inside.

They would call to the kitchen for dinner and they would talk, start getting to know each other, and figure out everything. No big deal.

The door opened and he almost recoiled as the omega’s scent washed over him; Shiro made a strangled noise. It was like slamming into a wall, hard; if earlier, in the sitting room, had been jumping into the deep end of the pool then this was being dropped in the middle of the ocean with no hope of rescue. Everything was taken over by the smell of damp and sweet and arousal like he’d never smelled on a person before. It was nothing like what he picked up from other alphas, something that tended to be sour to him, or betas, which could be nice but was mild, or even like the omega had smelled before; this was mouthwatering and dizzying, demanded his attention. His brain processed it as fertility, an omega ready to be breed. There was, oddly, his own scent as well as Shiro's under the omega's.

He didn't think he'd been in this room in months, not since the last time Hunk stayed over, but it smelled like he lived in there. It was weird but not weird enough to linger on.

The omega was on the bed, glistening with sweat and oil under the lights, wearing nothing but a flimsy nightie, cuffs around his wrists that lead to chains that were connected to the bed posts, and a collar around his neck with a leash, the other end of which was attached to the left bedpost. More cuffs were around one of his ankles and the chain looked like it was twisted up on itself.

His head popped up and swiveled towards them. His eyes were wet and rimmed with red, his mouth was swollen and red, open and slack, and his tongue darted out to wet his lips as he stared at them. His hips lifted and the nightie moved just enough for Lance to see a plug, black with a jeweled end, was inside of the omega already, and that his thighs were covered in liquid.

His brain conjured an image of it being him, his cock, deep inside of the omega in the toy's place. His dick, half hard and growing with each passing second, twitched in response.

Shiro brushed past him, looking dazed. Lance took a step to follow.

“Don’t forget about the pills!”

He spun on his heel, growling at the intruding beta. Haxus, who’d stepped into the room, jumped back with a yelp then put his hands up while averting his eyes, the picture of beta submission. Lance slammed the door shut in his face with enough force to rattle the windows in the bedroom.

Shiro was on the bed, popping the pill into his mouth, when he turned back around. He watched, breath catching in his lungs, as Shiro ran a big hand over the om-Keith’s back and lowered his head so he could press his nose into the bound man’s neck. Keith moaned, back arching into Shiro’s touch.

He stepped forward, peeling the foil from the blister pack as he did. His concerns about taking on an omega he didn’t know seemed to evaporate; of course this one was right for them. How could he not be, smelling like he did?  This one was meant to belong to them, he felt the rightness in his gut.

Shiro tilted Keith’s head up with one hand and brought their lips together while his other hand slid between the small teen's thighs. Lance put the pill on his tongue; it tasted like mint. The muffled moan Keith let out was almost as sweet as his scent.

\---

Keith was completely lost, mind torn into by the fire raging inside of him and the overwhelming of his senses, by the time the two alphas came into the room. Every sound was too loud, every feeling too much, and his nose was so sensitive it hurt.

Actually everything hurt.

He hurt, hurt bad, and his head was heavy and confused and no matter how hard he tried to claw back to real thoughts he couldn’t do it. He just sank deeper and deeper into sensations and sounds and smells; they piled into his brain, forced out thoughts, took over bit by bit until his only concern was his body and doing something about the pain.

It hurt inside, cramps that made his eyes burn with tears and drove him to bite his lip until he broke the skin. The ache inside, the prickling burn over his skin, the dryness in his throat...it was too much. He needed it to stop and he knew what he needed to do to stop it because something terrible and dark inside of him whispered the answer.

He needed an alpha. He needed a knot, to be filled with an alpha's seed and breed over and over. That would stop this feeling. The dark thing sounded a lot like Dr. Hagger and he tried to push it away while he still had the presence of mind to.

It was wrong, Keith didn’t want that. He didn’t. He couldn’t. He wasn’t like that. It was just this body, these drugs...it wasn't him. At least...it hadn't been. It was hard, so hard, to know where he started and everything else begins because his brain was screaming so many things.

He’d tried to do what he needed for himself; rubbed against the sheets until his skin felt raw and his body was so tight, perched on the edge of orgasm but unable to finish because he couldn't really get to his dick. Scooted closer to the top of the bed then reached down between his legs, stretching the chain as far as it would, to grasp the plug and work it inside of himself. He bit his lip as he rocked against it, trying to keep down the slimy feeling of disgust in his gut and throat at bay and trying not to cry out.

None of it worked, which made the fact he'd resorted to trying that much worse. He couldn’t get himself to finish, even though he knew it would provide him some relief, and ended up much as he’d started, face down on the bed, gasping and crying as he writhed in pain.

He couldn't, and didn't want to, fight the heat anymore, was stretched too thin and shaking apart. How did a person fight their own body anyway? He could never escape it, couldn't claw free like he so desperately wanted to, and without suppressants he was...he didn't know what to do. So he laid there, huddled up and miserable, bathed in the scent of the alphas who now owned him, and slipped away.

He had nothing left, had fallen so deep into himself that there was just the smell of alphas who weren’t there, the burn and the twist inside of him, the stretched but not full enough feeling, and the pain that seemed to grow stronger in waves, wracking his body until he would have done anything to make it stop.

He was scared, in a distant sort of way. The instincts he’d spent so long pretending weren’t there and suppressing with drugs, were screaming that something wasn’t right, that his body wasn’t right, but there was nothing he could do.

Was he going to die like this? After what had seemed like an endless time of being tortured and violated he was going to die tied up, dressed and painted like a whore, crying in some alpha’s house and wouldn’t that just be the perfect ending to all of this?

He let the instincts surge up in the end, gave up his body to the animal thing he didn’t want to be and had fought against so hard for years, and then he was lost. No more thoughts about why or how or, even, of escape.

It was easier.

When the alphas came into the room it was their scent, not the noise they made, that made him pull his head up to look around for them. Two of them, tall and strong and oh, they smelled

Smelled

So

He needed them. He hated them more than he’d hated anymore, more than the doctors and the alphas at the facility and the weak omegas who’d bent and caved right away, hated them so much it made him sick. But he needed them like he needed air and might just suffocate if they didn’t help him.

He hated them and completely disgusted himself.

He shifted up so his knees were digging into the bed, ass tilted up and knees spread a little bit, and his hands were holding him steady. He knew he was exposed to their eyes, could practically feel their gazes heavy on him. Something like smugness settled in him, a purely animal bolt of pride because he knew he had their complete attention.

He could taste it on his tongue.

They were the ones the bed, the room, the air, smelled like, the ones from before. Woodsy and salty like deep alpha musk and spicy arousal, a promise to bring him relief. One came to him without hesitation and when he felt that large hand rub at his back through the slippery fabric of the slip he was wearing it was almost too much after so long without. He shuddered, turned to liquid inside, and his skin felt like he was being shocked where the alpha’s hand touched. A nose brushed against his neck and he heard the alpha inhale.

He was sure he would smell right to him. Ready and wet and wanting and like he would be breed well; those were the things that mattered to alphas. That was why he’d moved when they’d come in, shown them where he needed them most. He needed them could see how much he wanted them.

And he did want them, wanted them so much his head was starting to spin.

He knew they were right, could smell how perfect they were. His body knew they would feel so good, would fill him up just right, would be everything he needed. His own scent, sweet and damp, grew stronger and the alpha made a quiet noise against his neck before drawing away.

His face was caught in a big hand, tilted up, and he parted his lips eagerly to accept the kiss he knew was coming. He’d never been kissed before, had never wanted to be, but it felt good, warm chapped lips over his own, the brush of hair over his skin, a tongue slipping into his mouth.

The hand on his back moved to dip between his thighs and he moaned into the alpha’s mouth as electricity curled up his spine. Fingers rubbed where his body was stretched around the plug, touched sensitive muscle gently as they swept through the wetness his body had produced. It felt different than when he’d been touched there before, warmer somehow.

The mouth on his was devouring him, tasting and drinking him down and he tried to respond in kind. The kiss turned wet and sloppy, lips and tongues sliding together, and pleasure curled low in his gut before dripping lower.

The bed dipped behind him and then there were more hands, softer than the first alpha’s but just as big, touching his legs. They moved over his ankles and calves and between his knees, pushing them open more. Then up, gliding through the slick coating his thighs, to where the other alpha’s hand was. One hand kept moving to touch his ass, gripped hard enough to make him gasp into the mouth on his own, and then pressed so he was spread even further.

“Oh.” The second alpha murmured. “He’s dripping. There’s so much.”

Fingers moved and then something hot and firm was touching him, swiping around his rim and the handle of the plug. He gasped then pushed back into it; it tickled but in a way that made his stomach tight and his cock throb. His lips were bitten then licked over as fingers gripped his hair and forced him to tilt his head back. Another swipe, drawn out so he could feel the heat and the wetness, and he gripped the sheets. He thrust his hips back again, was rewarded with another drag of the second alpha’s tongue.

The tongue trailed down, touched the sensitive skin behind his balls, and he felt fingers wrap around the plug. His tongue was sucked and licked over and hot air brushed over his balls.

It was hard to process everything, his brain struggling with the change from nothing to two sets of hands, of lips, of body heat and alpha scent...it was overwhelming. But he wanted it. Wanted more. Needed so much more.

Did they know?

Could they see how much he needed them?

The lips on his own pulled away; he tried to follow, reaching out to grab at the alpha and moving his head to chase him but the hand still in his hair kept him in place. “Lance?”

He felt the second alpha hum against his skin. “Yeah?”

“You want?”

A pause, marked by another slow lick, and then the heat from the second alpha was gone. “Yeah.”

The plug came free with a twist and a yank; without the plug in place more slick gushed free, drenching his thighs. He shook his head and whined his protest, hole fluttering at the abrupt emptiness. It hadn’t been much, more of a tease than anything, but it had been something and now he was completely empty.

He needed something inside. Needed to be full, stuffed tight; it hurt so much not to be. Why hadn’t they done it already? Why couldn't they just this over with? What were they-

“Shh.” The hand on his head stroked over sweaty strands softly. “We’ll take care of you.”

He was picked up, noting in the back of his mind that his wrists had been unbound though he wasn't sure when, and moved so he was over the alpha, the second one, knees on either side of the larger body, hands on broad shoulders. There was a touch against his entrance, fingers and then something larger, blunt.

He moved without thinking, pushed down onto the alpha’s cock eagerly.

It was big, bigger than any of the toys that had been used on him and much bigger than the plug, and he reached a hand down to feel and oh! There was so much left to go, so much to fit inside of him. He felt light headed at the realization but he didn’t stop. It was different, so hot inside of him and so much more than the toys had been, alive and real and everything he’d ever told himself he didn’t want. Why hadn’t he wanted this? This...this was good. It hurt too, a dull pain as it nudged further in, but was so good.

He could feel the alpha’s cock pulsating inside of him as he sank down on it, wanted to have it as deep as he could get it, wanted it to split him open and mold his body to fit it. That's what it felt like it was doing, pushing in deep and making a place for itself in him, or maybe filling up a place he hadn't known was there, changing him. It rubbed him from the inside, felt deliciously good even with the pain. He tilted his head back, stretched his neck, mouth dropping open and eyes watering, as he chased the burn that came with being forced open so wide. The alpha’s cock was a little thicker, and warmer, at the base and he couldn’t stop himself from sighing once he had taken it all in.

This was what he needed. What his body had been screaming for. His heart was thumping so loudly in his ears, banging against his rib cage in a frantic rhythm, and he could scarcely breathe.

“Fuck.” The alpha breathed as his hands found his ass and squeezed so hard he knew there would be bruises. “Fuck. So tight.”  

There was no real time to breath, to just feel it, because the alpha was gripping him tight and moving his body as if he weighed nothing at all. He was dragged up and then brought back down as hips rocked up to meet him and it was...bliss. The pain was there, fading to somewhere far away, but there was fire in his blood and raging inside of him, and the alpha’s cock rubbed over something that made his vision stutter and his lungs lose all the air in them and that made the pain meaningless. There was just the feeling of bouncing up and down, the alpha’s cock sliding in and out of him over and over, and a warm wonderful thing that swiftly built into spine melting pleasure.

He couldn’t do much but hang on, arms around the alpha’s neck and legs pressing close.

Their bodies made wet slapping noises when they came together and each thrust into him felt like it was going to tear him apart. He was being used like he was the toy, made to take the alpha’s cock into his already hurting body over and over. He felt stretched thin, messy and sloppy as he moaned for more, and got it in the form of harder rolls of the alpha’s hips to meet his own. His body shook from the force of the alpha’s movements and the hands on him held that much tighter, added another point of almost pain to the haze in his brain.

It hurt in the best kind way even as it made him very aware of how much slighter in build he was than the alpha.

He didn’t mind it. His mind hummed that a strong alpha was a good thing and this one was strong and big, moving him how he wanted, bent over him and nuzzling his hair. So huge in him, was hitting all the sensitive parts just right. He felt the tightness of orgasm sweeping back over him, lost when he’d realized he couldn’t get off on his own. It coiled low in his stomach like a spring under pressure and it just got tighter and tighter as he was made to ride the alpha. His cock was trapped between them, locked away and straining to full, occasionally catching a teasing brush of the silky fabric of his slip. It was leaking messily in spite of being caged; he was tempted to reach down and fit his fingers through the gaps in the cage but it wouldn't do anything.

And he wasn't supposed to touch himself there.

He was close, was there, but he wasn’t there. He just spiraled higher and higher, more sensation piling on, and he could have cried.

He begged instead. Dug his fingers into the alpha’s shoulders and clenched around the cock that was so thoroughly breaking him apart from the inside, and begged. The words came so easy and somewhere, distantly, he was disgusted with himself.

“Alpha, i need your knot, please. Want it inside, need it, need you, feels so good. You. so. Ungh, please.” He pressed his mouth, wet and drooling and full of filthy things, to the alpha’s chin. There was smooth skin there and sweat that he chased with his tongue. He hated himself. “Fuck me open on your knot, want to feel it. Bite me, fill me up, want to come on your knot- please. Pleasepleaseplease.”

Someone, the first alpha?, made a broken noise but before he could really register it he was tilting backwards. His back hit the bed, his hips were drug up higher, and then he was screaming. The first alpha pounded into him, harder and rougher than before, barely pulling out in favor of putting all of his strength into short fast thrusts. His prostate was battered and he couldn’t get air into his lungs as blinding pleasure making him quake. Keith clawed at the bed, at the alpha, at anything he could reach, and then the second alpha had him, drew his arms up and pinned them above his head. It was a grounding presence, kept him from completely becoming some wild wanting animal, but didn’t stop his mouth from begging. More, please, harder, yes, oh oh oh!

The alpha’s knot started to swell, catching on his rim with each short jerky push into him, forcing his passage open wider to accommodate, brought back the burn and fed the desperate need in him. His body tightened in anticipation. He closed his eyes and found himself gripping the second alpha’s arms, digging his nails in so deep he thought he might have broken skin.

His neck was kissed, nosed at, and then teeth were biting into one of his scent glands. He howled, back arching up of the bed, and everything exploded into sound and light and wet and relief so intense it made his chest hurt.

The alpha’s cock jerked then hot liquid was washing over his insides and he was coming too, convulsing and crying and clamping around the knot that had him so open and it hurt it hurt it was amazing.

He was gone, the world too bright and too loud, and when he came back he felt...different. Weak and drained but also very…calm. Full.

The pain was pushed back, all of it, and the consuming need wasn’t gone, but it was less. His neck stung a little and something. Something. He didn’t know what the something was but there was something just out of reach, something important, screaming at him to pay attention.

He let it float away.

The alpha’s knot was in him, tying them together, and he was sure he could feel the other’s cum in him, so much of it. His instincts and body, all wrapped up together to guide him through this thing he didn’t want to know about, whispered that it was good.

A tongue licked over his neck carefully, soothed the sting. Someone purred, a sound so content that even though he felt it rumble in his chest he knew it couldn’t be him. He’d never been ‘content’ or even happy, not once in his whole life.

How could he be as an omega? 

But.

There was a strange sort of disappointment when, all too soon, the alpha’s knot was shrinking. Was it supposed to be over that fast? He didn’t know, couldn’t know, but he felt like it was supposed to be something more.

The first alpha slipped free and had to force his legs from around his waist. He wanted to keep him there, inside of him, felt stretched and messy without him, but the alpha was insistent. The second alpha let him go as well and for one long terrible moment no one was touching him at all. He whined low in his throat, tried to push himself up to follow them with his eyes as they left the bed and shuffled around each other, but the second alpha was back and forcing him onto his side.

Keith’s leg was picked up, draped over the second alpha’s shoulder, as his other leg was straddled. He was moved around, swollen entrance prodded by thick fingers so some of the first alpha’s release could drip out of him. A quiet hum and then the second alpha was pressing against him, guiding his cock into him, and he tensed up before he could help himself. The alpha stopped and touched his face to make him look up; he found himself looking into questioning gray eyes.

He whined, trying to say what he didn’t have the words to explain even to himself. He was unsure, something inside of him confused and unhappy because the first alpha had already

Already

Lips touched his ankle, a more gentle touch than he could ever remember, and his body relaxed even as his mind tried to sort out this latest tangle. It, he, still needed more and so he would have more. The fire was calmed but it wasn’t gone. Already, with the first alpha’s knot gone, he could feel the hunger to be taken coming back.

It didn’t matter who soothed it so long as he didn’t have to feel that bone twisting pain again. He would take them both, take more, be fucked until the heat was gone. He had to, needed to do whatever it took.

The second alpha filled him easier than the first; his body looser and the way eased by everything inside of him. There was still an ache, the second alpha was no smaller than the first, but it was a satisfying one. This one was strong too, smelled like salt water and smoke and once again he was drooling from it.

His toes curled when the alpha was flush against him, buried in deep.

It was slower, more careful, with the second alpha. Long strokes inside of him, forcing cum and slick out to drip over his thigh and ass with each lazy thrust of his hips, then grinding against him when he’d bottomed out again. His body was sparking with pleasure again, his dick aching in it's cage and insides clenching, but without the maddening sense of urgency.

He felt it, felt every inch of this alpha as he slowly pushed in then slide out, was sure he would remember the feeling for the rest of his life. He could even feel the way the alpha’s cock throbbed and pulsed inside of him, warm and heavy as it pressed against sensitive nerves insides of Keith, knew when he inhaled and exhaled, was aware of every twitch of his fingers and swivel of his hips and he was drowning in all of it.

The pain and burning madness weren’t there to hide behind and it forced him to be aware of what was happening, what had happened. He wanted to sink back into himself, to be away from what was happening but he couldn’t.

There was nothing to distract him from the fact he was being fucked, body held open and full of alpha cock, and that he was enjoying every horrible moment of it. He heard himself gasp and groan, heard the wet desperate pleas that escaped his lips. He tried to move with the alpha, wanted to meet his motions and get him back inside faster when he wasn’t in as far as he could be, but the angle didn’t allow much movement on his part.

It was all there, crashing down into him, searing him inside and out, and he was helpless under it. Just a raw exposed nerve, unable to escape or deny what was happening, choking under waves of pleasure, and near sobbing when a shift in angle brought the alpha closer, deeper, gave him more of the slow soul destroying feeling.

This was terrible, worse than everything else so far. At least at the facility he’d been forced, held down, tied up, out of his mind, but now he was just...he just wanted it. Couldn’t deny that it felt amazing, every rock and twist of the alpha’s hips making him mewl and pant. He was ruined, broken, too needy for what was happening to stop it and fuck, it was so easy to believe he was made for it, made this, to take alpha cock. That everything he’d ever heard about what obedient sluts omegas were, unable to say no once they had a dick in them was absolutely true.

Maybe he wasn’t broken, maybe he was fixed.

Why else was he like this, so pliant and submissive to what he’d been raging against. Why else was his stomach churning and his body heating up, responding like it was. Why wasn’t he fighting back?

Why did the idea of fighting back make him feel panicked?

His leg was pressed closer to his body, bent so the alpha was close enough to mouth at the side of his neck that hadn’t already been bitten. Something thick and warm bloomed in his chest and his head tilted to the side to expose more of his neck as if he were a puppet following someone else's commands. It seemed right, earned him a deep pleased rumble from the alpha and that felt right too. Made something in him twist up and his heart skip a beat.

The second alpha’s knot grew and the steady thrusts turned into shallow grinding inside of him, the barest of movements. It was a different feeling, not at all like the constant stretching of his entrance and having his body cling desperately to the knot, instead it swelled inside of him, set his body alight in a breathtaking way that left him feeling very human and shattered. He came shaking and sobbing when he felt the first sticky pulse of cum inside of him and the press of teeth in his neck, hard enough to break the skin.

Keith wanted to push the alpha away, was now aware enough to know what a bonding bite was and what it meant, but his body refused to do anything but go limp, to submit to what it knew was right. The sick feeling, the anger, receded again, tucked back under as instinct won out. He welcomed it, was all too happy to give back in to the other parts of himself. Better than being present.

His neck was licked, sealing the bond, and there was something there, a pull he couldn’t begin to explain. The same as before but now it couldn’t be brushed away or ignored.

Something deep and primal that told him this was his alpha. This one and the other one; his alphas. He was satisfied for the moment, though he knew it wouldn’t last long. What was happening, the heat, was just starting.

His leg was allowed down, ended up curled around the alpha still tied to him. He was kissed, warm and coppery, stubble scratching his face, then again by the other alpha, slower and lingering before. He felt the question in the air and made a soft noise to show that he was...happy?

Yes.

Close enough anyway.

Fucked, knotted, bonded by his alphas.

He was theirs.

Somewhere, deep inside, he was screaming. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Probably obvious. But Keith is disassociating a bit. He'll be back to his usual self eventually. 
> 
> Whether or not that's a good thing, or it'd be easier staying out of it, is up for debate.


	5. And I Count My Sins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The start of a deeper plot starts to appear!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a lot of dark thoughts and there's a few mentions of suicide.

 

Keith had never had a real full heat before. He’d had a few pre-heats when he was younger, before he’d been fully ‘presented’ but had been technically past puberty. It was a weird inbetween time before primary gender and secondary gender got on the same page that some unlucky people went through and of course Keith, who only had bad luck if he had any at all, had been one those people. 

By the time he would have started real heats he was already on suppressants, ready to spend his life pretending to be a beta and never ever letting that disguise falter. The mini-heats had been...not pleasant, for sure, but akin to having the flu if anything. They’d made him achy, feverish, and woozy but beyond that they hadn’t been so bad and only lasted a day or two. He’d never thought much about what a full, real, heat would be like but he’d always figured that they’d be like the mini-heats. After all real heats couldn't be too bad; he'd been around while his mother had them. 

She'd even gone through them alone, as far as he knew and was always able to take care of him for the most part. There were moments when she was too tired or couldn't stay on her feet too long but she'd never been...he'd never thought they would be that bad. 

He’d been very very wrong. Being in heat was like slowly dying, being torn apart inside and losing himself. It was painful, physically and otherwise, and he couldn't imagine anything worse.

It felt like it lasted forever, first getting worse as the intensity ramped up and the need to mate just got stronger...and then worse in a different way as it lessened and he was left with a clearer head and more awareness. He didn’t want it, pushed back against it as best he could and found there was only one way to really so it.

He threw himself at the men who were now his alphas, purred when he was held down and close, panted when he was fucked and knotted and they worried at the marks they’d left on him, made sure they were deep and would leave scars behind. Keith let himself be caught up in it, swept away by the blistering heat and mind numbing pleasure. While they were inside of him, while he was shaking apart and riding their knots, his mind was too shattered apart to be aware of the situation. 

He didn’t want to think about what was happening, what had been done, about the thing he’d been turned into, desperate and filthy, and that meant not stopping. That meant crawling from one to the other, drawing them close, and spreading his legs for them over and over. 

He was sore and parts of him were throbbing, begging for a reprieve, but the heat insisted he carry on and that was the only thought he’d allow himself. He only stopped when he was exhausted and needed to sleep or was hauled out of bed to be cleaned up when it was absolutely necessary. Even then he was kissed and touched, trapped between them as they learned his body in the large bath or under the warm spray of the shower. Shiro, the bigger, scarred alpha, picked him up and pressed him against the cool tile and Lance, the smaller, bent him over the edge of the tub, and they took and Keith thought about nothing during and was grateful for it, in a way. 

Thinking about what he was doing would have destroyed him and maybe that would have been a good thing, easier at least, some part of him was determined to not just give in completely. 

Not that he imagined there would have been much difference in playing the needy omega slut who willingly got down on their knees and parted their lips to take in their alpha and actually being it.

His alphas gave him what he needed without question, responding anytime he showed even the slightest indication of wanting them, but then why wouldn’t they? They’d kidnaped him and sent him somewhere to be turned into a willing hole for their cocks, probably spent a fuck ton of money to make it happen, and it had been a success. Not enjoying him wouldn't have made any sense.

They used his mouth and ass for their pleasure, at the same time and separately as they saw fit, gave him their seed and knotted him when he begged for it, until it was leaking out of him in sticky streams, then used their fingers together to clean him out before doing it again. They happily fucked him until he was boneless and barely awake, knotted him until he was pleasantly sore, and then curled up next to him, trapping him between their bodies, when he needed to sleep. Someone’s knot was always in him but he was used to that after his ‘training’ and, other than the heat of it being slightly uncomfortable at first, it was...he didn’t have a problem with it. 

He didn’t have a problem with much of anything, actually. Or, rather, didn't let himself have a problem and instead let his body make the choices.

Everything was satisfying in a way that made the part of him that hated all of this scream and cry for him to wake up, to stop giving in like this, to kill them,  _ to kill himself _ because that would be better than this. But he kept his rage was small and distant, buried deep deep under the heat and the need, and easily dismissed. He knew it would come back eventually, that the hazy contentment would go away, but for now he was happy to let it lie and sleep between the men whose bites he now wore. He could feel that ‘something’, the tug and whispery touch in his brain of the bonds (chains the furious part of himself snarled, the bonds were chains and he was wrapping himself up in them like a blanket he’d never be able to escape), and it soothed him as much as anything else did. 

It made it possible to sleep.

But sleep never lasted long. Couldn’t, not when he was boiling inside and sweating and his head was pounding, and the cycle would begin again. 

Eventually the heat started to taper off and that was a new hell all it’s own because it made it harder to stay away from himself.

It was especially hard when they tried to talk to him in between rounds. His brain leapt to attention before he could stop it and answers to their questions sat on his tongue, waiting. They tried to sound like they were interested in him and hadn’t played a part in ripping apart his life and not giving them more of himself took work. He hummed or shrugged before pulling them close again, making it as clear as he could without words that he wasn’t interested in playing more of their games, but doing that was contrary to what he wanted to do ( _ obey, give them what they want _ ). He had to tell himself it was another kind of torture, more attempts to get into his head and twist up what little was left in there, but that he couldn’t allow it. Little by little he became more aware so he could protect himself.

They talked to each other, about school and friends and about him a little but not much. They’d start to, speaking over him like he couldn't hear them or wasn't there, then Shiro would stop and frown before changing the subject to something else. The inbetween times were almost dreamlike in their oddity; they were always wrapped up together, sticky with sweat and slick and cum, and they would stroke his hair and skin, nuzzle against him and sometimes each other when they thought he was asleep. Listening to their words, learning things about them bit by bit, falling asleep to their voices; it didn't feel real, wasn't terrible enough to be real, and yet it was. Not that he wanted to know about them, he would have prefered to keep them nameless (Alphas) and to know nothing about them at all because knowing things made them human and real. 

It was unfair that they could be human when he wasn’t.

Worse that they pretended to be concerned about things. To care about how he felt, asking if he was sore or hungry or needed anything. 

“What’s this about?” Lance asked at one point when they were doing nothing at all except lying together and catching their breath. He reached as he spoke, fingers touching and teasing into the cage. Keith jumped and Lance laughed, lips quirking into a grin. “Did they give us a key to this?” 

“Um.” Shiro was between his legs, running a wet cloth up his sensitive thighs, over his ass, and over his stomach, cleaning up the mess they’d made of him this time. “There was a key but I think it goes to the collar.”  

Lance made a huffing noise as his continued to brush his fingers over Keith’s flaccid cock curiously. “That’s dumb. We can’t take him-you-out without a collar but I don’t think we need this?” 

Keith blinked at him, heart racing. The soft touches, teasing as they were, were more contact than he’d gotten there in nearly two months apparently. He squirmed a little, lips parting around raspy breaths, and fought with himself. He could hear Haggar telling him that he wasn’t to use that, that an omega took pleasure from their alpha’s cock and knot and nothing else, and it was like needles pressing into his brain. It itched and what felt like fear bloomed in his chest. 

Was this a trick? Some attempt to lure him into being shocked again, to teach him a lesson or make sure he hadn't forgotten the ones he'd been taught? He could feel the crackle of electricity over his nerves, the muscle twisting pain under his skin like the echo of a familiar beat.

The collar around his neck grew heavier and seemed to tighten until he could barely breathe. He didn't want to electrocuted again, he really didn't, and all at once he was back in his body, in his own skin, sharply aware of the situation. Shiro and Lance, staring at him, fingers touching him, the interested twitch of his cock and the way it ached because the cage kept it from getting hard, the simmering in his gut and the fear he'd kept at bay. It all crashed down at him at once, shattered the bubble he'd built around himself and he was...he was there.

He didn't want to be there.

“No!” He slapped Lance's hands away with more force than he meant to and scrambled back. “Don't touch me!”  

Silence. 

He was pinned under two startled gazes and realized much too late that he'd done something he shouldn't. Struck the alpha, refused him; that was against the rules. He knew all the rules, Haggar and her trainers had drilled them into him. Proper positioning, how to present himself in public, what to say and do and what never to do. 

He couldn't say no and he could never fight back, let alone start a fight and if he did he would be punished. He didn't know how but he was sure it would be bad, worse than the collar or the things he'd been forced to watch other omegas endure (Because he was special, belonged to someone powerful, and that kept him  _ safe _ . That meant other people had to take on his punishments for him.) There was a crushing weight on his chest, pushing him down, and Haggar’s voice rang in his ears in time to the frantic beating of his heart, berating him for not doing what he should. He wanted to not care, why should he when he'd been forced into this, but he couldn't shake it. The pressure inside of him got stronger, pressed the air out of his lungs.

“Keith?” Lance looked confused, eyes sliding over towards Shiro who was soft eyed and frowning. He wanted to shrink away, to disappear from their sight but that wasn't possible. 

He ground his teeth together then shook his head, swallowing thickly, before moving back towards the alpha. He wrapped his arms around Lance's neck and kissed him the way he’d figured out the alpha liked, deep and lingering, lips parted and tongues touching. Keith didn't imagine he was any good at it and Lance was slow in responding, his body stiff. In the end he kissed him back, hauled him into his lap and swept long fingers down his side. Shiro joined them, pressed against Keith's back.

He didn't let himself think about how carefully they were touching him. 

The cage wasn't mentioned again.

He couldn't quite rebuild the walls, most of the heat madness he was using to fortify that barrier gone. When he woke up later that night he could tell it his heat was mostly over. 

His stomach was still cramping up and he was warm, skin still feeling not quite right, but it wasn't nearly as bad. He groaned as he opened his eyes into the darkness of the bedroom, worrying his lip between his teeth. His alphas had moved in their sleep, the smaller one turning away and hugging a pillow close as he snored softly and the bigger one on his back, though both had managed to keep hands on him. Another wave of cramps had him shifting, scowling as the chain around his leg clinked and pulled, and crawling up over the bigger one. He ached inside but more than that he was  _ awake _ and present. 

He shivered in revulsion then turned to look over Shiro. He knew, now, how to leave his head and be back outside of himself. He wasn't...he wasn't ready yet to face all of this. 

His alpha was already hard, erection tenting the sheet tossed over his hips, so all he had to do was get his cock inside of him. He tossed a leg over him and reached back to angle the alpha’s cock so he could use it then, biting his lip, lowered himself. It wasn’t the same electric, stomach twisting feeling of their first joining but the sensation of being filled was still amazing. The ache inside of him faded as he began to move, sliding up and down the alpha’s cock, sighing every time he was back in to the hilt. 

Yes, this. This was what he needed. More of this. This was what he was made for: to be filled up over and over by his alphas. That was...that was what omegas were meant to do. This was the only was he knew to find any kind of peace. 

Even if the voice in the back of his head, growing smaller with each passing moment, tried to deny it. 

\--

Shiro woke up to a weight on top of him and the feel of tight heat surrounding him, hugging his cock, and shocks of pleasure punching him in the stomach. He moaned as he blinked open his eyes to look up into glazed over violet ones. The omega- their omega- stared down at him with that same lust addled expression he’d been wearing the entire time, shameless as he continued to bounce up and down on him.

It took a few more hazy moments for him to fully wake up and grasp what was happening and by then Keith’s heat, and now that he was a little more clear headed he could see that for what it was, was creeping starting to pull him in again. When Keith got going Shiro’s body demanded he follow, that he satisfy his omega’s heat, and any concerns he had (and there were a ton of them) dropped away. He gripped thin hips, felt the bones underneath the skin, and squeezed as he dug his heels into the mattress. 

His omega was sweat soaked and naked, any attempts to keep him in clothes long since abandoned, pale skin now covered in purpling bruises and the impressions of alpha teeth. Slick was squishing between them, coating their skin. His hands were flat on Shiro’s chest, anchoring him as he worked, fingers digging into his skin. His lips, pale pink and wet, were parted to let out soft gasping noises and high pitched grunts when he brought their bodies together then swiveled his hips as he clenched around Shiro’s cock. 

He swept his hands down to his pert ass, squeezed and then spread his cheeks before sweeping a thumb down to feel at where they were joined; slick and warm and sensitive if the way Keith arched and tipped his head back was anything to go by. He moved with more urgency after that, practically slamming himself down onto Shiro, making the bed rock. 

“Ugh. What the fuck?” Lance groaned as his head popped up. Then, blinking tiredly, he let out a surprised breath. “Oh. Hey.” 

Their omega turned his head to look at him then reached, beckoning him closer. He rolled his hips, ground down against Shiro, and crooned. “Alpha.” 

Shiro’s belly went tight and the sweetly spoken word went straight to his dick. He bucked up, met Keith, and they moaned in unison. Blunt nails scraped at his skin and Keith shuddered, slick passage convulsing around him. Shiro thrust up as hard as he could, blood simmering at the almost pained noise Keith made in response.    
Lance crawled over to them, hand stroking his erection, and settled back to sit on his calves, knees pushing against Shiro’s shoulder. His other hand reached for Keith, pushed against his back until he was bent over Shiro, their chests touching and then slipped up into his hair. Shiro watched, pausing, and Lance dragged Keith’s head over to him.    
Keith’s mouth opened up obligingly, pale pink tongue darting out to drag over the head of Lance’s cock, sweeping away a drop of precum. Lance rose up a little, pushed Keith’s head, and the omega eagerly accepted the hard length pushed between his lips.

That too made Shiro run hotter, pressure building low in his stomach; Keith's hair slid forward, fanning against his face, and his lips fit around Lance, greedy slurping sounds filling the air as he sucked and licked his way up and down Lance's erection. His eyes slipped shut and his face went slack, almost relaxed. 

Lance kept his fingers tangled in Keith's hair as he slowly rolled his hips in a easy rhythm, fucking into the omegas mouth unhurriedly. Shiro stayed still, let Keith rock and grind down on him in a pace that seemed to match Lance's, and shut his eyes. He kept his hands on Keith, rubbed his thumb over his hip bone and kneaded the soft swell of his ass. It was slower, almost lazy, after Lance joined them and Shiro was content to let them have their fun. 

He was, honestly, exhausted. 

Shiro was a little surprised Keith was allowing it; so far he'd seemed to get antsy and bristle when either of them tried to slow things down. But maybe that had been because of his heat, which Shiro could tell was nearly done (his scent was lighter and he slept for more than an hour or two at a time) and he'd be less...frantic once it broke. It would be nice to know for sure but, somehow, he'd fallen into claiming an omega he didn't know. 

His mother would have been ashamed. 

When they were done, and his knot had gone down, Lance dragged a yawning Keith off to the bathroom and Shiro stayed put, collapsing back onto the pillows. 

His mother was an omega but he hadn't had any idea what to expect from a heat. His mother had been part of what was, functionally, a harem though of course that wasn't what anyone called it. She'd been the youngest, barely eighteen when she'd been chosen from a finishing school and nineteen when she'd given birth to Shiro’s older brother (Kuro had shown signs of being an omega and was sent away when Shiro was five and he was eleven, as was the way of things. Shiro hadn't spoken to him since, not even an email, but he supposed Kuro was bonded and had children by now.) Supposedly she'd come from a good Altea family but contact had been broken when she was claimed, as was standard. She hadn't spoken of her family much and Shiro had never been curious. 

When his mother had been in heat he'd been shuffled off to one of the other omegas to be cared for then returned to his mother when it was time. It wasn't appropriate for a child to see their parent on heat, or so he'd always been told, and if all omegas acted like Keith did he could see why. Nothing about the past few days had been child friendly. 

And yet he couldn't imagine his calm, always smiling mother in such a state. But it wasn't as if he could ask her about it, even if he wanted to.

He'd presented as an alpha and been moved away from the harem, to stay with his father's other alpha children in the air house. A few months later his mother had tried to run but Bond Snappage had ended up killing her. She'd never cared much for his father and, Shiro suspected, had only taken so long to try to run away because she'd been waiting for him to get older. Four months after that Lance's mother had adopted him. 

Fast forward 8 years and here he was, bonded to someone he didn't know, just like what had happened with his mother. It hadn't...he'd never intended to do something like this. He didn't- he knew that was how most people did it and that there were reasons for it but he hadn't been comfortable with the idea for himself. Still wasn't but he also hadn't wanted to let Keith go. Not after he’d asked to stay. 

Maybe that made it different. 

But not that different. Not different enough.

He couldn't say why he'd agreed, signed all the paperwork and marked Keith as his, except that it had felt right and he'd wanted him more than he could recall ever wanting something. Which didn't make it right and he knew better than most that just because it worked for most didn't mean it worked for everyone. 

But it did work. Could work. Shiro wanted it to work and it wasn't as if Keith hadn't been able to give his input. He'd asked to stay.

He raked his fingers through his hair, lips twisting into a scowl. He was no better than his father. ...well, expect it was common knowledge Shiro's father was an asshole who ignored his omegas unless they were in heat and he was sleeping with them. He wasn't cruel to them that Shiro had ever seen but he had been little better than a stranger to his omegas and a distant figure in the lives of his non-alpha children.

He wouldn't be that kind of alpha. He wouldn't-

A sharp rap on the door jarred him from his thoughts. He had just enough to pull one of the damp sheets over his body before the door swung open and Tess, Lance’s sister strode in. She looked perfectly put together, as always, and her eyes were cold as she surveyed the room. Her nose wrinkled, no doubt bothered by the smell of two other alphas, sex, and claimed omega. Nyma, her omega, slipped in past her, smirking. 

It was unusual to see Nyma off of Tess’s territory and off her leash. Tess guarded the woman jealously and had even once snapped her teeth at her own mother for getting too close. Shiro sort of understood it; Nyma was beautiful and someone might have tried to take her just to have her, even if she’d never bare them children. Tall and shapely with amber skin, upturned eyes in an unusual reddish color, and long dark blond hair, Nyma turned heads wherever she went. 

“Where’s Lance?” Tess asked. Shiro pointed at the bathroom; the sound of running water wasn’t quite loud enough to block out a throaty moan. Tess made a face. “You’re still at it? What did they give your omega to draw his heat out like this?” 

When Shiro shrugged, knowing full well Tess probably knew more about the situation than he did, she clucked in annoyance. She strode over to the bathroom and threw it open. Lance’s shriek was ear splitting. 

“Get your dick out of the omega and get dressed. Zarkon wants to see us.” Her icy eyes slid back over to Shiro. “Congratulations. You’re old enough for an omega so you’re old enough for business.” 

“What about-”

“Nyma will keep him company until we get back.” Tess said, waving a hand dismissively. Nyma smiled toothily. “There’s a car waiting so be quick. We wouldn’t want to keep your father waiting.”

Shiro sighed.

They didn't have any clothes in the guest room so they had to walk down to the other side of the second floor, where their rooms were, Lance dripping water and clutching a towel. It was only then, when they were suitably far from the guest room, that Shiro asked. 

"What's going on?" 

Tess' brows furrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line. "Voltron." 

This time Lance sighed. 

\---

The alphas left in a hurry, not bothering to make Keith get out of the tub or saying a word about chaining him back up. He stayed where he was, chest deep in warm soapy water, and let himself surface just enough to consider his options. Everything else he kept at bay, locked up tight where it couldn’t distract him. 

There was a row of windows above the, high on the wall. They were small but maybe...maybe he could fit through. There were doors in the bedroom that lead out to a balcony; they’d eaten out there once with Keith wrapped up in a blanket to protect him from the fall chill. 

Speaking of that he was sort of...naked. He was going to need clothes. And the bond was a problem. A big problem; he could feel it under his skin, in his head, tightening around him with every passing day. What was he to do about that? And he was registered now, wasn’t it? His name, his picture, was in the Database now. There was no chance of going back to school; his name would be flagged everywhere as an omega who’d been hiding. 

There was no way he could go back to Arus but...Arus was all he knew. He’d never been anywhere else. 

But he couldn’t stay. He had to do something. 

“If you’re thinking about running,” A cheerful voice said. “It won’t work. We’re about...twenty miles from the next closest anything and by the time you get to the city they’ll have people looking for you. And that’s not even counting in the bond; the minute Lance and Shiro know you’re gone the bond is going to come down on you like a ton of rocks.” 

There was a woman standing in the doorway, leaning against it. “Or you could just kill yourself. Problem solved, no worries about the bond. They won't realize something's wrong until you're dead.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo. You will have noticed this is part 5 of 5, and so technically this is over. But, obviously, the story isn't actually over, it's just this 'arc' (That I lovingly call 'Breaking Keith into tiny pieces' in my head) that's over. Think of this as the set up, or a really long prologue, if you will, to move all the important pieces, background, and the start of the big plot into place. You can sort of 'feel' how the story is changing towards the end here.
> 
> The next arc will start to cover: The world they live in at large (the history, who is actually in charge, things like that) more about Keith and he effects of his 'lessons' on him and how he fits into Lance and Shiro's lives, and Lance and Shiro and their new grown up roles in the McClain family business. And of course Voltron. But mostly it's 'Keith tries to glue himself back together and fails repeatedly. And then gets it right'.


End file.
